Reboot
by Schnickledooger
Summary: After an accident in the Digital World that takes Tai's memories away, the other Digidestined return there to put an end to the digimon that attacked and forced them to face their inner demons. A story of friendship and forgiveness. Tai-Matt-Sora centric.
1. Rewind

**Disclaimer: **I do not own **Digimon.** Toei Animation does.

**A/N: **You should listen to Revolutinary Girl Utena's "Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku" while reading this chapter. It's very appropriate music.

**Rewind**

Matt stares at Tai lying so deathly still on the hospital bed and wonders if the outcome would have been the same if he had only tried to reach out a bit further. The silence in the room is suffocating—only being broken by the sound of Tai's slow, rhythmical inhaling and exhaling and the beeping of his heart on the monitor. Moonlight is streaming in through the window, casting silvery light upon his friend's already pallid face and shining on the long, horizontal row of stitches running across his forehead, which seemed to glare up at him accusingly.

_Overhead, the air is filled with the war-cries as their digimon as they clash with their foe and the enemy's attack rains down a hail storm of blood-red droplets from the sky, leaving scorching, cavernous black holes anywhere it touches._

Matt lets his gaze wander down further along the expanse of Tai's body. Most of it is covered by the white, hospital blanket, but a few limbs remain exposed. Tai's left arm is encased within a plaster cast and tucked into a sling across his chest. Fractured humerus_,_ he recalls the doctor saying. If Tai had been awake to overhear his diagnosis, he would have laughed and said something like, "I've really gone and broken my funny bone this time, eh, Matt?" But Tai hadn't spoken at all. He hadn't even screamed when it happened.

_The battle rages above them in a furious onslaught and the earth beneath trembles violently as it splits widely in two unable to handle the pressure, a narrow fissure growing increasingly larger as it speeds towards them…_

Tai's right leg hangs in traction, shattered in three places, the only thing holding it together now is a bundle of titanium rods and screws. The skin is swamped with angry, reddish-purple bruises from the surgical staples. Two months for the bone to mend, the doctor had told them. Two more months for rehabilitation. And that is only to ensure that he would be able to walk again. Playing soccer… may not be a possibility. Too early at this stage to be certain, the doctor had stated so aggravatingly calm.

Three cracked ribs, internal bleeding, blunt head trauma… they had told the hospital staff he had been hit by a car.

_They're climbing up a sheer, cliff wall and have almost reached the summit. A misplaced foot, a lost grip on a handhold…Tai catches her as she slides backwards. Twin spheres of smoldering flame slam into the mountainside around them and she cries out in alarm and fear. _

It's wasn't his fault, they tell him. But all Matt can see are Tai's pupils widening to pin-points, his chocolate-brown irises portraying utter shock as he realizes…

_Matt's reached the top now and everyone is clambering around the edge, peering over in concern at the two who have yet to ascend to safety. Matt lowers his upper half as far it will go over the side and feel hands behind him bracing his legs in support. He extends both hands out towards them, a horrible, panicked feeling welling up in his throat. _

She is blaming herself. She hadn't stopped crying since the moment it occurred. She had kept a constant vigil at his side—even now, she is slumped over in a chair by the bed, finally asleep by complete exhaustion, her hand steadfastly clutching Tai's limp, unresponsive one.

Matt fleetingly entertains the notion of hating her but it doesn't last. She may have been the one, who had effectively obstructed Tai from reaching the top, but Matt had been there mere inches away and he had let the opportunity to save him slip from his fingers.

_Tai pushes her forward and Matt grabs her by both wrists and painstakingly lifts her up until he feels someone else relieve him from the burden of her weight as they pull her to firm ground, then he drops himself back down and reaches for Tai, who stretches out his hand in an effort to meet his and now he is only clinging to a crag on the cliff wall with one arm…_

Was there anything else he could have done? Looking back, reflecting on it, he still can't see how things would have turned out different.

Because no matter how far he had strained his arm or stretched out his hand, the fact remains that _Tai had chosen not to clasp hold of it._

_Tai's fingertips brush his briefly, but the weight of his unbalanced body sends him swinging backwards in a dangerous manner, and the rock around his handhold crumbles slightly and Matt knows he only has one more chance to reach his friend before something terrible happens._

_Pressure is taken off his legs as one pair of those hands that held him pinned securely wraps around his waist as if their owner were afraid he would pitch face-first over the cliff. He can feel the worry, fear and tension in their firm yet gentle grip—a pair of hands he knows all too well. _

Matt thinks Tai's eyes will forever haunt him. He can still vividly recall the flash of hurt and betrayal imprinted across his friend's face as they take in the sight of the person behind him and that horrible, life-altering moment when Tai had froze with shock, faltering for one, fatal second to take his out-reached hand…

Then an explosion rocks the foundation right out from under them.

_Tai doesn't scream as he plummets earth-bound sharply. He doesn't scream although he must be seized with terror. He's falling like a bird that has lost his gift of flight. He's falling, the distance between them expands every hundred feet and Matt still stretches out with one hand but all it can grasp now is emptiness. Tai's falling and the ground below is the only thing that is there to greet him._

In a coma for who knows how long. Possible amnesia when he awakes, _if_ he awakes. Cannot rule out brain damage, but on the positive side, he is showing active brain waves, the doctors tell them.

_Trapped in a world of nightmares,_ Matt thinks and the guilt shreds at his soul.

In her chair by the bed, Kari stirs and murmurs in her sleep, asking her brother for forgiveness.

Matt's cell phone vibrates and one glance shows it to be Sora calling for an update on Tai's condition. In his mind, he can see her hands wrapped around her own phone in a firm, yet gentle grip waiting for an answer.

But he cannot give it. How could he have called himself Tai's friend when he hadn't even seen the pain he had been causing him for so long? And he wonders if the outcome would have been the same if he had only tried to reach out a bit further.

_To Be Continued..._

**A/N:** Ah, I wrote angst, I wrote aaaaaaaangst! The world is ending! (curls into ball on the floor). How did this happen? There I was not less than a week ago being all smug "Pshaw, I am so cool—I don't need to read or write no stinkin' angst to wallow in melancholy happiness!" Tch, my muse is a vindictive little thing! Never write angst after drinking five cups of coffee; a caffeine high will not bode well for you. Your mind imagines strange scenarios. The fact that I was listening to Revolutinary Girl Utena's "Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku" while writing this didn't help. (Okay it did-the dramatic music was very inspiring).

Actually, I've had this plot mulling around in my head for months and just needed to get it _out_—it's been driving me crazy! This first chapter is _supposed to be vague_. I'm sorry if this made things confusing, but if you continue reading everything becomes more clear (like why Tai looked betrayed and who the identity of the person behind Matt was). Ahem, so, if you have any questions or aren't sure you understood what was going on, just lemme know in your review and I will try and answer without giving any future plot away.

By the way, how was the angst? You know, I hardly ever write it—it's not my favorite genre. I can only write it when I don't want to, so I never know if it's good or not. Please share with me your thoughts! I'd like to know your opinion on it. Thank you!


	2. Erase

**Disclaimer:** I do not own **Digimon**. Toei Animation does.

**Erase**

"How is he?" Matt asks her when the two of them emerge on one of their rare visits outside to meet with him and his brother.

"He can hold the chopsticks correctly now and doesn't drop them anymore. He finished off Mom's entire tray of liver-sticks yesterday," Kari says and begins laughing.

But is it not an amused laugh at all. It borders on hysterical and bubbles out of her throat in a mixture of hiccups and strangled sobs, and Matt shifts his weight awkwardly unsure of what to say or do to comfort her and is grateful for T.K., who takes her into his arms and lets her cry into his chest.

Matt knows why she's upset. A normal Tai would have known how to hold chopsticks and wouldn't have cared how to properly use them and spear his food through one end quite rudely. A normal Tai would never have eaten his mother's strange food inventions, knowing they were hazardous to one's health.

But Tai hasn't been his normal self for almost three months now.

_The day Tai finally wakes up is on the Sunday following the horrible accident and everyone has gone to check up on him on their free day and so they are all there the moment Tai faintly stirs and opens his eyes._

"Is he doing alright in his coursework?" Matt presses for a lack of a better topic and he knows he should just let the subject go. He is only making things worse by reminding her and T.K. is glaring at him over the top of her head.

But he has to know. He has to know how Tai's doing even if he is different now. He still is alive and for that he is grateful.

"He got a B+ on his last Literature essay," Kari says dully and Matt understands the unsaid words.

Tai has always been abysmal in Literature. He had claimed he had far better things to do than sit around trying to unravel the many mysteries behind the Shakespearian language. Matt can remember their teacher calling him up earlier that year to please refrain from doodling soccer diagrams all over his homework.

Nowadays, Tai doesn't come to school anymore. He stays home and learns the material himself through Independent Study and a private tutor. The school says that would make things easier for him and he could go at his own pace instead of trying to keep up with his classes.

_Matt knows the minute he catches sight of Tai's vacant, expressionless eyes that something is wrong._

"_Tai!" Kari exclaims, relief and joy spreading across her face as she bends over him. "You're alright! I'm so sorry, Tai, I didn't mean to slip! It's all my fault!"_

_Tai blinks slowly, his gaze appearing to pass by her as if she were a wholly, uninteresting, inanimate object and casts a long look around the room and his captive audience, then turns to his sister who is waiting expectantly for him to speak, and stares at her as if he had never seen her before in his life… and utters one word. _

"_Who?"_

The group walks in silence to their destination. They're meeting the rest of the Digidestined at the soccer park and Matt can hear the unspoken question resounding loudly throughout his brother's and Kari's mind the same as his.

_Will Tai remember when he sees the game being played?_

Matt pushes the fact that Tai still hasn't regained one single memory before the accident even with his room plastered with pictures of soccer sports stars and his uniform and equipment strewn out in an untidy heap to the back of his head.

Familiar things, the doctors had told them. Familiar things and routine would be the best cure for amnesia brought on by the blunt head trauma. They can prescribe medication for the pain; however, recovering lost memories is a totally different matter.

_Kari stands stock-still in shock as she stares down at her brother, her crimson-brown eyes growing to the size of marbles… then she snaps and loses it completely._

"_TAI, IT'S ME, KARI! YOUR SISTER, KARI! DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME, TAI? TAI!"_

_She has a hold of his hospital gown and is shaking the front frantically, heaving in giant gulps of air as an odd, whistling sound spills forth from her lungs and Matt realizes with a kind of creeping horror that she is having an asthma attack._

Tai is a short distance ahead of him, leaning on Kari for support and Matt notes with a pang of remorse that his gait has a slight limp to it.

The rehabilitation has done him some good. His left arm has healed, the bone in his leg has mended well and he no longer needs to use crutches, however the rods and screws within it still have not been removed. The doctors want to leave them in a bit longer to help the leg grow stronger.

It is the first time in a while that Tai has ventured outside the world of his apartment, trips to the doctor and rehab sessions. Everyone treads lightly around him as if he were made of fragile glass. He is unnaturally quiet and polite and makes small talk whenever someone clumsily tries to initiate him into a conversation. It is like Datamon had succeeded in making a copy of one of them and deleted the original.

Matt wishes Tai would slug him, yell at him, and claim it was his entire fault for shattering his dreams.

And yet a small, ashamed part buried deep within him is unabashedly happy that Tai can't remember the reason why he should hate him.

_Matt visits Tai only once after he is released from the hospital. It is a month since the accident and he hasn't talked to him at all, and his conscience gnaws at him until he finds himself standing on the threshold outside the Kamiya residence pressing the buzzer._

_The door opens and Tai is there before him, wearing a black, walking cast boot on his leg and his arm in a sling, and staring blankly at him as if he were another door-to-door salesman. Then a tiny spark of recognition lights up in his eyes, but before Matt can get his hopes up too high, Tai says, "My sister isn't here right now."_

_Tai remembers him from the hospital room, of course. And though he no doubt is unable to remember his own family even, living with them for a couple of weeks must have made him more comfortable calling them that._

"_I… uh, came to see you, actually," Matt says._

"_Why?" Tai asks and confusion is evident in his voice._

"_Because… we're… friends," Matt drawls off lamely, feeling like a total lie has sprouted from his lips._

"_Friends," Tai echoes, rolling the word around on his tongue as if it was foreign, and Matt wonders if he has forgotten what that means also. "I see … we were friends before…"_

_Tai nods more to himself than to Matt as if trying to convince himself this was normal and gestures for him to come inside._

_Matt takes off his shoes at the entrance and follows Tai down the hallway and watches him seat himself on the living room sofa, his attention now solely focused on the television in front of him, apparently having forgotten about his guest in the space of less than a minute._

_Matt sits down next to him, idly tapping his thumb against the armrest and struggles to find the right words, but what can he say?_

_Tai doesn't remember falling off a cliff wall. Tai doesn't know the person who could have spared him so much pain and suffering is sitting a mere foot away. Tai doesn't remember anything about the Digital World, being a Digidestined, or even his own Digimon. He believes the same story they had told the doctors about being hit by a car and the others had seen no point in revealing the truth. He wouldn't understand anyway._

_Matt wants to apologize. He wants to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness for not being able to reach him in time and for being so blind for so long at not being able to see his feelings for…_

_But he says nothing because there's nothing to say and sits in silence alongside this shell of a person who was once his friend and wishes he had never come._

They reach the soccer field and see Ken and Davis kicking the ball around, while the rest of the Digidestined watch from the stands. Sora is the first to spot their arrival and races up the concrete stairs.

Matt stiffens as she approaches. He's been avoiding her as much as possible these past few months without trying to be too obvious. Sora assumes he is distraught and wisely gives him space. She has no idea he can't bear looking at her without guilt flaying him alive as well as a dash of resentment. He can't help but wonder if she hadn't appeared over his shoulder in concern for him that fateful moment on the cliff, would he have managed to grab Tai's hand? But he already knows the answer to that question.

"Hello, Tai," Sora says carefully in the manner that someone coaxes a timid kitten out from under a bush.

Tai acknowledges her presence with a slight tilt of the head but that is all. To him she represents just another countless name and face to remember, a leftover from his previous life that lies shrouded in shadow.

Matt sees Izzy, Joe and Mimi slowly making their way towards them and pausing a few steps below. Yolei and Cody hover uncertainly behind them, giving the older kids the chance to have their reunion.

There are several seconds of uncomfortable silence where no one is quite sure of what to say… then Tai speaks first.

"That," he says, his eyes engrossed on the field below as he watches the figures of the two boys run around kicking a white-and-black checkered ball. "That game: it's soccer."

"That's right," Kari says softly. "You used to play it."

She doesn't ask if he remembers anymore and she highly doubts he does now. He probably recognizes it from the plethora of soccer material enshrined in his room.

But her brother's eyes shine with a sharp, attentive glow that she hasn't seen in months a small flicker of hope flares in her chest.

"_HEADS UP!"_

Everyone's heads shoot up at the warning shout in time to see the soccer ball spiral upwards in a wide, off-target arc then begin its descent to the ground in a speeding hurdle towards them.

Matt sees it as if in slow motion: the ball millimeters away from whacking Kari in the head, Tai stepping in front of her, his body tense in preparation, his uninjured leg striking out to impact solidly with it, sending the ball hurtling back down to the soccer field in a magnificent kick.

He gapes in wonder at the spectacle, aware of everyone doing the same, and Tai's face has gone ashen as if he could not believe what he has just done.

"Taichi-sempai!" Davis calls out as he sprints up the stairs. "That was awesome! At least you haven't forgotten how to play soccer, right?"

Something is wrong though. Tai is staring at the soccer ball tucked under the boy's arm with an expression of fear and mingled horror. Violent trembles rack his frame and his breathing becomes fast and uneven as he hyperventilates, a sickly sweat breaking out across his forehead

"Tai!" Kari cries, gripping him in alarm. "What is it? What's the matter?"

"Maybe he's remembering something!" Davis exclaims excitedly. "Hey, let him kick the ball again!"

"_LEAVE HIM ALONE!" _Kari screams, whirling on him wrathfully, her face an angry red and Davis backs away hastily.

"I… I don't…" Tai chokes out, his brown eyes wild and unfocused, his hands clutching at the sides of his head. "I don't… _remember_… "

Maybe it is the reality of three months living with a blank slate and having to start over from scratch finally sinking in all at once. Maybe the fact that his body has moved seemingly of its own accord has forced Tai to realize there was a time when things and the people around him had meaning in his life. Maybe a lost, long-forgotten memory is trying to break to the surface of his mind and he is subconsciously repressing it for some reason. In any case, it looks like Tai is going to collapse any moment under the strain.

"Let's go home, Tai," Kari says sounding like she is holding back tears. "You'll feel better soon."

They watch them leave without protest. The day having been so bright only minutes before now appears appallingly bleak.

She is trying to be brave, Matt comprehends suddenly. She is trying to be brave because Tai can't be right now. It is not that she doesn't care or that she wants him to remain in the state he is in forever, but she's afraid for the moment when he does remember. And he realizes that he is not the only one feeling guilty.

"I didn't mean to upset Taichi-sempai," Davis says looking crest-fallen. "I just thought soccer might be good therapy for him. I don't understand. What happened?"

"Sometimes the mind may forget, but the body will remember," Joe explains.

"And what's with him freaking out about kicking a soccer ball—?"

"Davis," Izzy interrupts coolly. "Maybe not all memories of soccer are good ones for him."

There is a story behind that statement—Matt can tell, and for one second he is annoyed at Izzy for knowing it and not him, then feels chagrined when he realizes that Izzy would probably never have hurt Tai the way he has.

Sora places what should have been a comforting hand on his shoulder, but all it does is remind him of what he has stolen from his friend.

And in a way, Matt thinks, it may be a blessing that Tai has lost his memories.

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: **Eh, I should post this on the weekend, but patience was never my fortitude, especially when I have the chaptered finished and waiting. Besides, I get the feeling you guys weren't sure of what to make from my first chapter. I hoped this cleared things up a little. This is supposed to be a story about forgiveness and friendship and secrets everyone has sealed away in their hearts. Surprisingly, it's not really about the whole Tai-Sora-Matt triangle—that was only the key that turned the lock and opened the dark room. The catalyst, I think it's called. It's more like having everyone confront their own cowardice and weakness. What I'm trying to portray is how everyone has issues that they need to face and deal with, but no one wants to.

So ask yourselves these questions: 1)Do you think Tai truly can't remember or is he forcing himself not to? 2)Do you think Matt doesn't want Tai to remember because of his failure on the cliff or the inevitable confrontation he will have to face? 3)Do you think Kari is afraid of Tai remembering because she thinks he will blame her for always holding him back? 4)How dense is Sora for not realizing she has caused Tai anguish for choosing Matt over him and inadvertently causing him to freeze up that day on the cliff when she was more concerned about Matt than him?

See? It's a lot more complicated than it appears. And I have to answer all these in the next chapter, ugh! The final installment may take longer than expected.

Alright! Please review and share your thoughts! I'd like to hear what you guys think of this fic even if it's only one line. I'm curious as to what goes across people's minds when they read this. I promise I don't bite!^^


	3. Pause

**Disclaimer:** I do not own **Digimon.** Toei Animation does.

**Pause**

Kari catches him looking at the picture from their first adventure in the Digital World three years ago; the one Andromon had taken in Primary Village where everyone is posing with their digimon and with Ogremon, Centarumon and Gennai riding on Mechanorimon who are standing behind them. She doesn't know where he found it—she thought she had hidden all the photographs containing digimon safely away. For a moment, she panics then dares to hope that some small sliver of a memory comes back to him from the visual.

But Tai only hands the picture back to her with a quiet statement of, "It looks like I had fun at this festival. The costumes are incredible."

And Kari realizes that if even the sight of Agumon doesn't jar his memory, then nothing might ever will.

_She watches in horror as her brother plunges through empty space and it's over so quickly, she doesn't even have a chance to scream. Tai lies motionless on the ground so very far below, a tiny rag-doll of a figure, limbs spread out at unnatural angles and a puddle of red liquid pooling around his head. Only then does a heart-wrenching wail tear itself free from her throat. _

She doesn't know there are so many different forms of amnesia until the doctors try and figure out which type her brother has. They finally diagnose him with Retrograde Post-Traumatic Amnesia, which they explain means that he has lost his pre-existing memories due to a harsh head injury. He will be able to form new memories that occur after the accident, however he will be unable to recall his life from before. The doctors also share with her family that his declarative memory has been impaired, which means that while Tai may have forgotten who he is and personal episodes, his mind still remembers how to do certain skills, hence him being able to play soccer.

They are told not be so disheartened, that most amnesia victims suffer only temporary memory loss and that something familiar from the past usually triggers their memories into returning.

But it's been four months now and despite all attempts in reacquainting him with his previous life, Tai's lost memories remain as obscure as ever.

_There is a terrible roaring cry and WarGreymon is falling from the sky in a bright flash of orange light and it is Koromon who plows painfully into the rocky floor and remains unmoving, and everyone is aware of the fact that it is never a good thing for their digimon to de-digivolve in response to their partners. _

Tai smiles sometimes, but it is not the teasing, lop-sided one full of mischief that she remembers. This one is calmer, more forced, as if he only smiles because he thinks it will make her less sad.

Kari wonders if he will still smile when he remembers it is her who slowed him down long enough not to reach the top of the cliff and fall to his ruin. She is always holding him back like that. She is always being a burden to him. That time he had tried to teach her how to play soccer and all she had done was get sick. That time he had tried to hide and protect her from Myotismon who was searching for her, she had let herself be captured. That time when trying to defeat the Dark Masters and she had fallen ill again. She has never been strong enough to help him. She has always been causing him grief and worry. She had thought that this time, with her D-3 and a brand new way of digivolving—finally one thing she can do that her brother can't—that she might be able to prove that she isn't weak.

Then she slips that awful day on the cliff.

_She wants to climb down to him. She wants to climb down and make sure he's alive because he's so alarmingly still. And Koromon is lying only a few feet away and why doesn't he get up and find out if his partner is alright? And there are hands, too many hands restraining her regardless of her struggles to escape and voices that are too loud yet make no sense buzzing around her._

_And all she can do is emit a long, drawn-out, piercing scream in an effort to block the sound of sinister laughing ringing overhead._

Kari finds the sibling roles being reversed. Whereas Tai had always been the one looking out for her, now she is the guardian and he is under her care.

She tries to spend as much time with him as she can, whether it is to play a simple board game with him or merely sitting beside him to watch a movie. And though most conversations they have center around homework or how her day was at school, at least they are talking. And sometimes, when he's had a particularly bad day, Tai asks her to tell him a story of an event he can't remember. She tends to stick to tales of when they were little, before the Digital World and rarely mentions the other Digidestined. At least her brother has grown accustomed to her presence that it's become almost normal to converse about absolutely nothing with someone he's seen every day for the past four months and for her to still be a perfect stranger in the end.

_The digimon who attacked them out of nowhere has fled. She should be worried about allowing such a strong level, clearly psychotic digimon free reign in the Digital World to cause chaos or where it had come from in the first place. She should be concerned about poor Koromon whom the rest of the digimon claim has gone into a Frozen State, but she can't seem to form any rational thoughts other than pleading to anyone who might be listening to please let her brother live._

It all comes to a head one day when Tai stumbles upon Gatomon in her room. Kari has sent her digimon to stay over at Yolei's ever since her brother had come home from the hospital. She doesn't want to alarm him or give leeway to questions she can't answer. She doesn't like hiding things from Tai or being separated from Gatomon for so long, but Gatomon solves this problem by visiting her every day in the late afternoon.

Tai usually is taking a bath or a nap at that time. Kari and Gatomon are so caught up in their conversation they don't hear the footsteps leading to the door open until it is already opened and Tai is standing there, gaping at the scene in front of him.

"We got… another cat?" he asks running an eye over Gatomon's feline features.

Gatomon bristles at that. She may have been a cat digimon, but she dislikes being put in the same category as those mindless, human house cats. Kari gives her a warning nudge in the back, so biting down her pride she lowers herself on all fours and lets out a very irritated "Meow."

Kari thinks the deception is going well and starts to relax until the next words out of her brother's mouth prove that while he may have lost his memories his often-times rash personality is still there buried deep within him.

"Did we buy it to breed with Miko and sell their kittens?"

And nothing come hell or high water is going to stop Gatomon from replying to _that _blatant insult.

"I WOULDN'T PUT ONE PAW NEAR THAT MINDLESS, FLEA-INFESTED FELINE AND UNLESS IT HAS A DEATH WISH, IT WILL DO THE SAME!!!"

"_Gatomon!"_ Kari hisses but the damage has been dealt.

"It… talks…" Tai says eyes wide.

Kari wonders if he will believe her is she tells him Gatomon is a human-made, highly-advanced creature only available on the market to select people. Well, it is true sort of.

But before she can form the words, her brother has stepped over to Gatomon whose fur is ruffled, ears are back and glaring at him… and to her horror does the one thing all cats hate the most.

"Is this a real cat? Or is it a toy with a voice box? How do you change its phrases?" Tai inquires curiously yanking on the tufted end of Gatomon's striped tail.

Gatomon yowls more out of wounded dignity than actual pain and swipes at him with her claws out of pure instinct, only pulling back at the last second when she remembers he is human, so the end result isn't a deep gash, but more like three fine paper cuts.

It is almost comical, Tai's stunned expression, as it dawns on him he has just ticked off a real live cat—a real live,_ talking _cat—and he stands there a moment in shock until tiny beads of blood ooze out from the claw-marks emblazoned across his face.

"Gatomon, how could you?!" Kari exclaims, leaping to her feet and rushing over to Tai and dabbing at the lacerations with some tissues from her nightstand.

"I'm sorry!" Gatomon cries, looking extremely repentant. "I didn't mean—"

"Go to Yolei's _now!"_ Kari orders angrily.

Gatomon's ears are laid flat against her head in shame and she turns without another word and leaps out through the open window into the evening.

Kari feels immediately guilty. She knows Gatomon hadn't meant to lash out—years of being constantly on guard as Myotismon's henchman is bound to leave its mark in more ways than one. She will phone Yolei's later and apologize. Right now… she has a lot of explaining to do.

_Tai is still unconscious and Koromon remains in Frozen State, which may be a good thing, because if either one was awake, they would be worrying hysterically for their partner. But Tai needs medical attention and fast, Joe says, and the older Digidestined's digimon promise to look after Koromon, so they return to the real world and Kari is dismayed to see that her brother's injuries have transcended along with them. She had hoped they would simply vanish like Davis, Yolei, and Cody's outfits._

_And she doesn't rest, not even after the doctors declare his condition has stabilized after all the surgeries, she can't, not until Tai wakes up and says he forgives her. But when he finally opens his eyes, a whole new nightmare begins._

Kari finds herself sharing with her brother about digimon, the Digital World, and how they were chosen as Digidestined, their crests and their adventures. She tells him he wasn't hit by a car, but had an accident in the Digital World. She doesn't clarify the circumstances or how it happened though, and Tai doesn't press for more details to which she is extremely thankful. When she is done, she waits, half excited, half dreading his response to her for withholding this vital information for so long, but she never dreams what his next request may be.

"Can I go there?" he asks, his tone sounding almost wistful.

It's a perfectly logical question and it stands to reason that Tai's memories may return if he is physically present in the world which took them from him, but Kari is seized by a terrible fear that if he goes back to the Digital World, something horrible will happen to him again and this time he might not survive. And she doesn't want to ever know the pain that Ken has undergone of losing a brother.

So she shows him his old digivice and her newer model and explains the gate only opens in response to a D-3, and that they only travel to the Digital World when a need to arises (and purposefully leaves out the occasional holidays and picnics they have there).

Tai believes her without argument and she leaves him sitting on his bed, running his fingers over his digivice and staring at it utterly entranced. She makes her way over to the phone to call Yolei and resolutely shuts out any shred of hope in her mind that her brother will remember anything simply by being told all these new facts.

_She can't breathe. Her brother can't remember her and she can't breathe. Someone is ripping away her hold on Tai's gown and the room is spinning. She hears a labored wheezing and dimly realizes it's her and an oxygen mask is being placed over her mouth and she tries to tear it off, because surely, surely if she calls out her name again, Tai will remember her. But someone is pinning her hands to her sides and all she can do is leak helpless tears out the corner of her eyes and be confronted with the cruel reality of how very weak she is._

oOo

If anyone had dared plucked up the courage to ask Tai what having no memories is like, he would have told them that it is like waking up in a sea of fog and having no sense of direction. All he can do is stumble forward blindly to try and find some way out of it, but no matter where he turns, he is faced with a thick wall of white nothingness.

But he thinks the worst part of having no memories isn't that he can't remember anything—it is the people coming up to him and acting like he should know them on sight and greeting him so familiarly. It is embarrassing and stressful especially when they seem to be waiting for him to do something his past self has formed a habit of.

It is distorting enough to wake up and realize he has no recollection of who he is, Tai thinks, but it is overwhelming to have someone shouting a name and their relation to him, and then have that example done over a dozen more times after by others.

Still, he thinks he has gotten along quite well despite this recently-acquired handicap—after all, if you can't remember anything, then you don't know what you are missing out on—and at least his physical injuries have healed… until the day they go to the soccer field and his body acts of its own volition and something starts pounding away on the inside of his skull struggling to break free and Tai knows he must not allow it to, because whatever it is, it has a sense of fear and dread about it.

Then just when he thinks things have gone back to normal, he learns his sister has a talking cat for a friend and apparently has been shielding a part of his past life from him. This story should have been hard to swallow since most of it seemed pretty incredible to be true: being sucked into a different dimension with more talking monsters, saving their world and the real one. But as he can't remember most things, for all he knows, hopping universes may be a perfectly normal occurrence in society, plus there are photographs and the strange device called his digivice as proof. And if he still has any lingering doubts, the visible claw-marks from his close encounter with one of the talking monsters is more than enough to convince him that everything told is true.

Kari's been acting rather strangely ever since she has shared this information with him though. He wonders if she is expecting him to suddenly remember everything at any given moment and it makes him uneasy. He hasn't really reacquainted himself with anyone outside his immediate family over the span of the past four months. Those other kids, the rest of the Digidestined it seemed, had tried to strike up a friendship again initially, but their visits had been far and few ever since the day at the soccer field. Tai realizes that they don't care about _him_ per say, the person he is at the present, rather, they want their friend back that they know, his former self which remains ever so elusive, and he feels like a rejected apple thrown back into the barrel. And he hopes Kari hasn't begun to follow their mindset, because so far, she has been the only stable and secure thing in his life.

He takes a joy in discovering what he can remember to do. For instance, he knows he is able to play soccer (though he hasn't attempted to since that one time he had kicked the ball). He has to learn the rules of Monopoly and Clue again, but finds that he can play checkers without a hitch. He knows how to make an omelet but has to be shown how to work a microwave. He likes routine and order, they're familiar and unchanging, and he likes knowing that there is something constant in is life. That's why his already fragile world is shattered one day when his parents are still out and Kari comes up to him with a fevered, determined glint in her eye and calmly states:

"I'm going back to settle this. I'll make things better, I promise."

There's a duffel bag hanging over one shoulder, she's clutching her D-3 in her other hand, and Tai knows without her telling him where she is headed, but doesn't understand her cryptic words. Why is she going there right now? It's almost 4:00, the time when they have their afternoon snacks and Kari has said that she was going to teach him how to make riceballs today. Why is she interrupting the schedule?

But he's too dumbfounded to say anything and her arms are wrapping around him in a gentle hug as she whispers her goodbye and then she is gone and he is alone.

Alone. Alone. _Alone._

And he can't be alone because it's an aching realization that he is not needed and what has he done to be deserted like this, to be left all alone? Perhaps if he could only remember, but his memories are gone, they have fled from him as well. And the apartment seems so incredibly large and empty, and the quiet is stifling only broken by the sound of the hanging wind chimes on the balcony resounding dully against each other like a chorus of mournful sighs.

A nameless fear brushes at the inside of his head, and all he can do is go to his room and take shelter under the covers like a child hiding from unseen monsters and the shadows that dance eerily around the walls from the darkening clouds outside.

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: **So yeah, as you can see this fic isn't over yet like I stated before in the last chapter. (sheepish grin) Haha, three parts, what was I thinking? This might end up being five or six. Darn you, Digidestined, why must you angst so much?! The readers want the plot to get on with it! Ah, well, I'm sure you don't really mind. You get more story earlier than expected and I get more reviews to inspire me. *whistles innocently*

Before I forget, I better explain Koromon's Frozen State. I invented this. The best way to describe it, I think, is a computer freezing up (don't you just hate it when that happens?), which should make sense since as a digimon, he's built of data. I don't want to give too much away, since I will explain this in more detail next chapter—drat, another hint!—but it was _partially _brought on by Tai falling off the cliff obviously and the shock of his partner being so grievously wounded. However, there is a deeper factor at stake here that has yet to be revealed. Just think of Koromon's Frozen State sort of like Han Solo encased in carbonite. He's alive and healthy, but frozen and unconscious for however long it takes for someone to reboot his system.

Speaking of reboot, yes, I changed the title yet _again_. I apologize profusely for this. Not only is it confusing for those who have this fic on their alert list and favs to see some random story updated they don't remember reading because the title is different, it is highly embarrassing for me. I really liked the sound of "Rewind", but that title doesn't cover the material in the rest of the chapters. And if I had stuck to my original three-parts, the fic would have had three words for a title, which would have been alright if a little weird. But since I haven't any idea how long this fic will go on for (possibly six chapters), I decided to change it to reflect on the overall plot, hence "Reboot", meaning a new start/beginning. Pretty appropriate since it's centered around lost memories, eh? It's not going to change again, I promise (this time for real).

Kari was predominantly in this chapter. No Matt this time, boo-hoo. But I hope I ameliorated things by trying to give you some insight into the inner workings of poor, amnesic Tai's mind and how forgetting his memories has shattered his self-confidence. And maybe now, you understand better why Kari feels so guilty? And yes, apparently, somehow she thinks she can make Tai's memories return if she takes care of the digimon who indirectly caused him to fall, oh dear.

Thank you for taking time to read this and all those who have alerted and faved this, even if they didn't review (I see you on my stats, hehehe). I'd love to hear your overall thoughts so far as well as the scenes that touched you. So, feel free to review please. And thanks once more for reading, I hoped you enjoyed it.

So what's up for the next chapter? On my, we're going to the Digital World! Whatever shall we find?^w~


	4. Play

**Disclaimer:** I do not own **Digimon. **Toei Animation does.

**Play**

Tai isn't sure how much time has passed. It may have been ten minutes; it may have been an hour. He's called out Kari's name numerous times now, but the only answer he gets in response is the faint blowing of the wind outside, and if he concentrates hard enough, he can almost pick up a chanted mantra: _Taichi, Taichi, Taichi…_

And it is a completely crazy thought, but he imagines it is his lost memories beckoning for him to come find them.

The shrill ringing of the phone breaks him out of his delirious reverie and numbly, as if in a sleepwalking daze, he untangles himself from the covers and pads out of the room to pick it up where it hangs from the hallway wall. From this viewpoint, he can see outside through the sliding door glass the darkening clouds gathering as a storm brews.

"Hello?" he says hoarsely into the receiver.

Lightning streaks across the darkened sky in a white-hot flash of electricity.

"Uh, hello…" says a young, male-sounding voice pausing for a moment. "Tai… is that you?"

Clearly whoever it is, hasn't been expecting him to be the one to answer, but they must know him since they recognize his voice.

Tai nods before he remembers that the person on the other end can't see him. "Yes," he says.

"Oh, well, hi, nice to hear from you in so long," the voice says in a fake, cheerful manner. "This is T.K."

_T.K._ Tai recalls him as one of the Digidestined, but there are far too many faces to place with the name and he can't keep track of who is who, so he remains silent.

"I was wondering… could I talk to Kari?" T.K. asks hesitantly.

Thunder booms above and the whole building shakes as if a giant has rested his foot on top of it.

"Can't," Tai rasps out. "She's gone back to settle things."

"What?" T.K. says not understanding.

"She took her D-3 with her. I didn't see Gatomon, but she probably met up with her," Tai explains like it's perfectly normal for him to know this information.

"Y-you know about Gatomon and D-3s? Y-you remember things now?" T.K. sputters. "Wait, are you saying that Kari has gone to the Digital World _by herself?"_

"Kari told me about it," Tai says. "She said she was going to make things better."

"W-what?! You mean she went back t-to—I gotta go!" T.K. declares, sounding panicked before the line goes dead when he hangs up.

Tai remains standing there with the phone still held to his ear listening to the dial tone like it is a soothing lullaby.

The blackened heavens break open and unleash a furious onslaught of rain upon the earth below.

The wind has escalated to a fierce howling, which rattles the doors and windows as if trying to seek entrance and it's chanting has not ceased: _Taichi, Taichi, Taichi…_

A red dot appears on the screen of the device called his digivice and begins steadily beeping.

oOo

Matt can honestly say this has to be one of the worst days of his entire life. He can't even just label it as _the_ worst day because he has had far too many of them: the day his parents split up and separated him and his brother, those many dark days in the Digital World where he felt he wasn't worthy of the Crest of Friendship, when he almost hadn't made it time to save Tai from Piedmon's finishing blow, the day on the cliff when he _hadn't _reached him in time, the day Tai had woke up and couldn't recall his own name…

And finally, today, when Sora had succeeded in cornering him to demand an answer on why he had been avoiding her for so long.

"Do you want to break up with me, Matt, is that it?" she asks in a hurt tone.

"_No!" _Matt yelps before he has time to think and he feels awful.

My god, he hadn't even realized that Tai had liked her in that way and he had never felt so surprised or happy when Sora had confessed to him, and Tai had been so supportive and enjoyed teasing them and had acted like nothing was wrong. It must have been agony for him every day and now Matt knows this and the guilt is eating him alive because he still loves her, still wants to keep her all for himself in spite of this, and it's so incredibly selfish.

So all he can do is try to avoid her but the inevitable confrontation has come at last.

"Then what is? You don't call me or talk to me anymore. What am I supposed to think?" Sora inquires frustrated. "Just tell me what's wrong."

"Tai," Matt croaks out and Sora's expression softens.

"Oh, Matt, you can't keep blaming yourself for that," she says, touching his arm gently. "If it was anyone's fault it was that digimon's—"

"You don't get it, do you?" Matt says, shaking off her hand and running a weary hand over his face as he realizes he has to tell her. "Did you know… did you know that Tai liked you?"

A stony mask has settled over Sora's face as she narrows her eyes and sets her mouth in tight line. "What are you talking about?" she says, clearly irritated at this flow of topic.

"Did you ever… like him?" Matt questions, because thinking back he realizes how close the two had been, but he can't discern if it was mere friendship or feelings of attraction.

"Matt, stop, this is ridiculous," Sora commands heatedly. "Yes, I had a crush on him back when we were kids, alright? But he obviously never felt the same way and I don't where you're getting these wild ideas or why we're even talking about this. I love _you_—"

"Did you see his face that day on the cliff wall?" Matt interrupts. "You were right there behind me—did you see his face when you reached for me instead? I wasn't even the one in danger of falling."

He hears a sharp intake of breath and he turns around and Sora has a horror-stricken expression imprinted across her countenance, all the color having fled from her cheeks.

"Oh my g—is that… is that what…" she trails off not able to voice the words.

"He didn't take my hand," Matt says and he feels so relieved to finally be able to share this terrible secret with someone. "I tried to reach him but he didn't take my hand… because he saw you… reaching for me."

They stand there in silence for several, long minutes, the world seeming to have stopped with this newfound revelation…and then Matt's cell phone goes off with T.K.'s ring-tone.

oOo

Tai's running. Down the sidewalks and puddles, through the pouring rain. His house slippers are drenched and he is soaked to the bone through his thin sweat pants, tee shirt, and light jacket. He's running—his digivice clenched tight in his hand. He's running and he doesn't know where.

And he finds that his feet have led him straight to the soccer field.

oOo

The Digidestined are having a very intense game of Phone Tag.

"Whaddya mean Kari's gone to the Digital World by herself?! That psycho digimon is still on the loose! Call me back pronto, T.J.!!!"

"This is Yolei. I can't find Gatomon anywhere. Let's hope she's with Kari."

"Should someone check up on Tai? I mean he must be feeling overwhelmed by all this."

"We can do that later. He'll be safe here. We have more pressing priorities at stake."

"Cody, this is Izzy. Tell your parents you're going over to my house for a study session, then head over to the school. Mine will cover for you."

"I hope Kari didn't get caught in this storm. It's a total hair-dampener!"

"Just bring an umbrella, Mimi."

"Yolei, this is Joe. Make sure to bring some food supplies and a first aid kit from your store. We don't know what might happen over there."

"T.K., this is Yolei. Ken says he'll meet up with all of us in the Digital World. He can get there faster from his computer."

"That's great, he can get a head start on finding her before something else does."

"Why haven't you called me back yet, T.P., you jerk?!"

oOo

Tai stands in the middle of the waterlogged field and wonders what he is doing there. He has the sudden urge to throw back his head and laugh hysterically at nothing so he does and feels the coolness of the raindrops as they trickle down his throat. Letting himself fall backwards, he lies on the wet grass with his limbs spread out and stares vacantly up at the sky, now a more mild grey as the rain lightens up. He can no longer hear his name being chanted on the wind.

_There is quite a large possibility that I've gone mad,_ Tai thinks and turns his head sideways to glance at his still beeping digivice grasped in his hand.

A few feet away, the air reverberates like the surface of the road in the summer heat.

Tai sits up and stares at the empty space wondering if it is a mirage.

The air shimmers briefly again and a creeping mist starts to fan out.

His digivice begins to beep more frantically as in response.

Tai extends one hand into the mist to see what will happen and watches in fascination as the front half disappears. He pulls it back out completely whole and unharmed and realizes with a sudden thrill what he has found.

A gateway to the Digital World.

oOo

Gatomon doesn't like it when Kari gets this headstrong. It is living proof she is every bit as rash and foolish as her brother sometimes. She doesn't see any good outcome of going to the Digital World with only the two of them. But she can't just let Kari go by herself, which her partner has threatened to do, and she still feels guilty over accidentally attacking Tai, so against her better judgment, she accompanies her and takes her to the destination she has in mind.

And feels horribly unsettled when they arrive at the sheer cliff wall.

"Kari, let's go back, please," she tries to reason with her. "If you must face this digimon, we'll do it with everyone else as a team and bring it down! How do you even know it will come here again?"

"Because to it, this is a game," Kari says in a voice that holds no fear, like when she had stood up to Myotismon—an ardent, defiant tone. "And I have chosen to play."

And Gatomon can only hope the others will arrive in time to stop this madness.

oOo

Tai wonders if the Digital World always keeps the same weather or if it changes like the real world. In any case, he isn't complaining. The sun is blazing warmly overhead and his clothes are damply, suffocatingly warm as he trudges through this tropical-type forest, his slippers squelching soggily with every step. It is almost like being on vacation and Tai resists the drive to lie down under a tree in the refreshing shade and be lulled to sleep by the melodious, exotic what must surely be birds—or bird digimon's songs. He can't really relax anyway. There's a strange sort of pressure on his head, something he thinks he should remember but can't, and it feels like a stony weight loading him down with an unintelligible demand. He thinks he knows what it is though. The reason for coming here…

The reason for coming here…

He follows the red blips on his digivice obediently, which are going off at fast-paced intervals, and walks for how many miles he doesn't keep track of until at last the continuous beeping comes to a halt and he finds himself looking down on what resembles a round, pink head.

Tai scans for the rest of its body but doesn't see it, and wonders if this is a digimon also. It looks like it is asleep with its eyes closed, but there is no movement of breath coming from it and then he wonders if it is dead. Can digimon die? Kari hadn't been very specific with the details. He feels a horrible pang in his chest at the thought it might gazes down upon it pityingly, because if it has died, it has done so all alone.

Alone… like him.

Before he can stop himself, Tai has stretched out his free hand and has placed it on top of the digimon right between its streaming ears.

And the round, pink head stirs, opens red eyes, smiles a toothy grin up at him and says, "Hi, Tai."

Tai supposes in hind sight anyone else might have screamed or fallen over in fright. In fact the notion to do so seems oddly familiar, but he feels like he's been spellbound and unable to make any sudden motions.

"Who are you? How do you know me?" he asks and feels like something is chiseling away at the inside of his skull.

He waits for shock and disbelief to crowd the pink head's face—that's the typical response of everyone he used to know who learns firsthand of his amnesia.

But the pink head doesn't gape at him in horror—it doesn't even appear all that surprised. It just smiles at him happily as if contented with his mere presence.

"My name's Koromon," it tells him. "And we're partners."

_My name's Koromon and we're partners!_

His head is beginning to hurt.

"Partners?" Tai repeats and recalls Kari explaining how each Digidestined had a digimon who were their partner. But the one she had pointed out as his in the picture had been an orange, dinosaur-looking creature not this pink head.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember you," he confesses.

"That's alright, Tai, we're together now," the pink head—Koromon—says. "You've kept me waiting."

"Waiting?" Tai repeats.

"I've been waiting for you to wake me up. I couldn't do it on my own, not until you were ready," Koromon states. "It doesn't matter if you can't remember me. We'll just make new memories together. You're still you after all!"

"I'm… still me?" Tai echoes and the words strike a heartwarming chord within him because no one, not even his sister, has claimed that losing his memories was of no concern to them.

"That's right, Tai! You're still in there, somewhere. You just haven't found yourself yet. It's like when I digivolve into Greymon! I may change a little, but I'm still the same person!" Koromon declares, its large, red eyes shining brightly.

"So… I need to… digivolve?" Tai asks, drawing a conclusion.

The little creature doesn't laugh at his obviously deluded sense of logic. "If that's what you think will help you," it says.

And some locked barrier within his mind breaks wide open.

Tai stands paralyzed in place for awhile. It feels like he is having one of those out-of-body experiences. It is as if there is a tiny distant other Tai looking down on the real one below.

"Oi, are you finally done feeling sorry for yourself?" someone says behind him in this bizarre existence out of space and time.

Tai turns around startled and there is someone standing behind him. Someone wearing a blue shirt with twin orange stars on the shoulders, cargo shorts, white gloves on his hands… and a familiar pair of plastic goggles over a blue headband to hold up wild, untamed hair.

His brown eyes are gleaming with a passionate fervor and they hold a kind of knowledge that Tai no longer has.

Tai stares at the reflection of his eleven-year-old self in wonderment.

"What you're doing is despicable," Younger Tai says not bothering to conceal his disgust.

"What am I doing?" Tai asks feeling as if he is on the verge of falling… falling over a cliff… _a cliff._

"You can't possibly be me. I would never let myself become so weak," his younger self states, pointing an accusing gloved finger at him. "So hurry and _SNAP OUT OF IT!!!" _

And the world spins out of focus as Tai collapses to knees, bowled over by a tidal wave of memories.

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: **Oh look, Tai got his memories back! What will this spell out in the next chapter? And he's reunited with Koromon, yay! (I loved writing that scene by the way^^). I know I said I was going to explain the Frozen State further here, but the chapter got a little too long, so you will have to wait until the next chapter to find out what else caused it. Mmm, so now we have Kari being either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, take your pick. Sora finally realizes what she has put Tai through and Tai being a little bit psycho in this chapter.

The only part I'm iffy about is the digital gate in the soccer field, but I figured since Tai once returned to the Digital World through some sort of warp-hole in 01 in Ep.21, I figured I'm not too far off track for it to be impossible.

So what are your overall thoughts reading so far? Please let me know in a review. _500_ hits now! I hope you enjoyed this fic, so stick around. Things will heat up in the next chapter!


	5. Fast Forward

**Disclaimer: **I do not own **Digimon.** Toei Animation does.

**Fast Forward**

Regaining memories is like drowning, Tai thinks. He is being bombarded by wave after wave of images, experiences, and emotions with no break in between and he is struggling to keep his head above the water, but there are far too many and he keeps being dragged under by a whirlpool of speeding flashes of recollection.

oOo

_He thinks he will finally ask her out today. He's been waiting for a good opportunity to do so and a concert at Christmastime seems like the perfect set up for a date. He sees her standing outside by the back entrance and her cheeks and nose are flushed pink from the cold and the last rays of the setting sun are lighting her copper-brown hair a fiery red. He's so nervous he can barely get the words out of his mouth, not that when he does, they are particularly elegant anyway._

"_So, um, Sora, are you going to the concert with anybody? Not that it matters to me. Just wondering."_

"_No, I want to be available in case Matt is free afterwards."_

_And just like that, his dream smashes into smithereens._

oOo

_He never thought it is possible to both love and hate two people before. _

_He doesn't like suppressing his emotions. He's always worn them on his sleeve and hiding them seems so spineless, but he has to. He has to make sure no one suspects his true feelings on the matter, because all that will do is cause unnecessary pain. _

_So he plasters on a false smile and does his best to act like any other normal person whose newfound goal in life is to tease the heck out of their friends when they hear they are an item._

_And he is not sure what hurts more, seeing them together or them not seeing the torment he is going through._

oOo

_He's hanging by one hand on the cliff wall and she appears over Matt's shoulder, her arms wrapping around his friend's waist, her face riddled with fear and worry, but she is not looking at him, and Tai realizes she doesn't see him anymore, that she hasn't for a long while, and that maybe she never has at all._

_Then he's falling, falling far away from her and does she see him now perhaps?_

_And he allows himself to be swallowed by merciful oblivion._

oOo

Finally, the whirlpool spits him out on dry land and Tai is shuddering, gasping like he has been suffocating, and he doesn't realize he is crying until Koromon wipes the tears trailing down his cheeks with a gentle brush of his stringy ears and calls his name hesitantly, "Tai?"

"Tai?" Koromon says again and he lifts his head to meet his digimon's concerned red eyes.

"_Hi, Kari-Kari, Tai-Tai! My name's Koromon!"_

_And a large, roly-poly, pink talking head launches itself at his face._

No, that wasn't the same Koromon that is in front of him right now.

"Tai, what's the matter?" Koromon asks.

"I… let myself forget," Tai says breathlessly. "I didn't want to keep living a lie, but I was trapped. Tell them and cause them to suffer. Don't tell them and suffer myself. And I couldn't take it anymore. I felt so worthless, useless… alone. So when the darkness came, I didn't even fight it. I just wanted an escape from it all."

_What you're doing is despicable! _

Now those words make sense.

"I'm such a coward!" Tai cries, pounding one fist half-heartedly into the ground. "To run away from my own problems… and all I managed to do was hurt everyone anyway. These past few months… they've all been so worried... and I've been hiding behind a wall in my own mind."

He can remember now. Every time a forgotten memory had come close to breaking through to the surface, he had subconsciously repressed it on purpose because he had preferred the peaceful allure of obscurity to the sharp sting of reality.

"You must be regretting it," he says, head bowed, "to have chosen someone so weak as your partner."

"You're not weak, Tai!" Koromon declares affronted. "You're strong! There are just some things you can't face alone! You need the support of your friends! That's what having friends are all about! Friends help share each others burdens regardless of the pain that comes with it!"

A dry chuckle escapes Tai's lips. "Now, you're starting to sound like Matt."

_Matt…_

_Sora…_

It is like he is back in the real world with the rain still pouring down and the clouds have parted and have let a ray of sunshine break through, and it sheds its light upon him and he realizes with a jolt something he had not noticed before. More than being envious of their relationship, he had been afraid, so horribly, deathly afraid that he would be cast aside and forgotten… that his two best friends would no longer have anytime or space in their life for a third wheel like him.

"I got distracted," Tai whispers, amazed at this new revelation.

Koromon waits patiently for him to continue.

"Dreaming about Sora being my girlfriend," he says. "Getting jealous… acting so hard to cover up my true feelings…feeling sorry for myself. I forgot that… the most important thing…is to enjoy the time we spend together."

The past four months, he hadn't even realized it, wrapped up in his shield of a cocoon, but now it was an obvious glaring oversight. He had missed it so much—being with his friends, joking around, teasing, and talking nonsense. It must have been so much harder for them though—to be confronted by someone who in every shape and appearance was their friend and yet a complete stranger also. He, at least, had been spared the pain through his memory loss. And the amnesia had helped in a way, he supposed. He would never again take anything for granted because nothing lasts forever. Time and friendship are just too precious of things to waste over selfish or spiteful feelings.

A gentle breeze sweeps through the air, ruffling Tai's bangs and making his hair even more untidy than before and with it comes a sense of peace as he speaks his resolve with calm kind of clarity.

"I'm sorry I made you wait for so long, Koromon. I won't give in to my fears and lose myself like that again."

There is something burning within his chest. It feels like he has swallowed a molten lava rock and now it is branding his flesh and searing its way out from the inside, and strangely enough, it doesn't hurt at all, and when it finally does erupt from the very core of his being, he is momentarily blinded by a dazzling flash of orange light.

The brightness finally dims, not disappears—no, it is still there surrounding him in a glowing, golden aura—and the spots behind his eyes have retreated, Tai finds himself staring nose to nose with a green-eyed, orange dinosaur standing in the same place that Koromon had been seconds before.

"What's my name?" the dinosaur—looking like a miniature T-Rex—asks him.

"A-Agu—mon," Tai chokes out, then tears are blurring his vision and a lump is forming in his throat and he can't get any more words out.

But no more words are needed and boy and digimon are lost in an almost smothering embrace of arms and claws as they are reunited once again and the golden aura that lingers around them flares and pulses rhythmatically like that of a beating heart.

oOo

Ken doesn't need to be a genius to figure out where Kari has gone. She will be waiting there… waiting for the digimon to return to the scene of the ambush and it _will _return, he knows this, because unlike the others who are still puzzled why such an obviously strong digimon had attacked them out of nowhere then turned tail and fled when it could have easily finished them off, he had understood _why._

This digimon—and it is a digimon if only in the barest form—feeds off of negative emotions. It had been drawn to their group that day due to volatile energy that was running high within their ranks. He had thought he had been the one responsible for it appearing at first. He seems to attract dark forces to him like moths to a flame and he could _feel _the foreboding, evil aura the digimon threw out that like it was searching for something, and still remembers the horrible, nauseous feeling that had come upon him when the digimon had briefly brushed his mind with the merest hint of a shadow from its writhing black coils.

Afterwards, in the calamity that follows, he thinks it may have been Tai that had pulled the digimon to them. His behavior even for one amnesic speaks volumes for an anguished soul. He can still vividly recall that short span of time after he had shed his Emperor persona and had wandered around in a sort of numbed daze—his own spell of amnesia brought on by him not being able to face the horror of what he had done: torture and enslavement of innocent digimon and causing Wormmon to be deleted…

Ken knows too well the allure of blocking out reality as an escape. That is what had made the Digital World so appealing to him when he had thought it was one big video game.

He hasn't shared his theory with anyone, not even Davis. What can he say? "Kari, I believe there is a distinct possibility your brother is carrying negative energy within himself, something which is never wise to do especially in the Digital World, and he may have ultimately caused that psychotic digimon to attack us and his own mental state to collapse." Kari is already distressed enough as it is. What good will it do anyway? And he has to admit, a part of him is ashamed for not speaking up earlier about his concerns. It is just that once having been accepted by the other Digidestined, he hadn't wanted to damage the fragile hand of extended friendship by voicing a half-formed hypothesis that may or may not be sound.

But now as he and Stingmon speed towards her, he wishes he had told her or someone. Because even if his theory is incorrect and it wasn't Tai that had drawn the digimon to them, it _is_ still true that the digimon preys on the darkness one holds within themselves. It could have been anyone or all of them that had enticed it near enough to decide to make a feast out of their toxic emotions they tried so hard to hide.

Only now it will be worse. Kari is burdened down that her slip on the cliff almost cost her brother's life; Matt is afflicted similarly because he blames himself for not reaching Tai in time, everyone else is haunted by the realization that one of their number may never rejoin them plus their own personal, dark secrets and regrets, and the guilt hangs like a millstone around all their necks.

And Ken stumbles onto the reason the digimon had left them alone. Because it knew they would come back… with a deeper, more tainted set of emotions than before.

The feast has become a banquet.

oOo

It is a rather noisy procession—nine kids riding on their digimon and tromping through the forest like a herd of Mammothmon and making no efforts to cover up the steps or be quiet. They have no time to be cautious after all.

Matt broods silently from his seat on Garurumon's back as they crash through the underbrush. Four months of pent-up stress, guilt, and worry is finally merging all into one gigantic ball of irritation inside him. He is angry at himself for not reaching Tai in time. He is angry at Tai for not taking his hand and for having the nerve to forget about him and the rest of his friends, even his own sister. He is angry at the digimon who caused all this in the first place. He is angry at Sora for not realizing Tai liked her back when apparently she had felt the same way about him. He is angry because now that she _does _know Tai likes her—or did—she might consider returning his feelings. And he is angry at Kari for doing something so extremely reckless and stupid, she is only outshined by her brother back when he had forced Greymon to digivolve wrong into SkullGreymon.

The Kamiyas truly are a thorn in his side. It terrifies him to think that there is a chance someday that they might be his in-laws. He casts a glance at his brother riding on Pegasusmon flying above and takes in his frightened expression, his face made even paler by the shadow of his hat's rim, and feels a pang of sympathy for him. T.K. must really be worried.

"Hey, guys!" Izzy calls down from Kabuterimon's back. "There's nine of us in this group, Kari by herself and Ken trying to locate her first—that makes eleven altogether, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Davis says sourly, still a little put out that he had been the last to find out what everyone was doing, regardless of him being the "leader" of the younger kids.

"So, is my digivice glitching or does anyone else's show _twelve_ dots too?" Izzy asks.

There is a flurry of movement as the Digidestined check their digivices and D-3s simultaneously and ponder on what the twelfth blinking dot signifies.

oOo

A warm reptilian snout is snuffling contently into his chest and blowing blasts of hot air through its nostrils, and a low, gravely thrumming is coming from within its throat in a dinosaur-rendition of purring, and Tai wonders in amazement how he ever could have forgotten his own digimon.

"Agumon," he says, rubbing the top of the smooth, orange head fondly. "You said earlier that you were waiting for me to wake you up; that you couldn't do it on your own until I was ready. What did you mean by that?"

"I was in Frozen State," Agumon explains. "It's sort of like when a computer freezes up. I needed you to restart my system, but you had lost yourself."

"Lost myself…" Tai muses. "You mean it was brought on because I couldn't remember—that I had lost all my memories?"

"No, I think that saved you from disappearing completely," Agumon states, lifting his head from Tai's lap to look his partner in the face. "You lost what makes you _you_ out there on the cliff somehow. I don't know how it happened, but I felt it vanish—the bond we share with each other. It gave me quite the shock. I felt all my power drain after that. I started to de-digivolve and think I might have gone backwards into nothing, only something stopped the process. It must have been when you lost your memories."

Tai winces because he thinks he understands what had happened now. He had felt so betrayed and hurt when he had seen Sora reaching for Matt and fear had seized him by the ear and whispered that he was not good enough, would never be good enough … and he hadn't seen the point in fighting for something he had no chance of winning. In that instant, everything around him had ceased in their meaning to him.

His courage zapped to zero.

Izzy had told him about the time he had been ensnared in Vademon's dimension and how almost losing his knowledge had almost destroyed Tentomon. Their digimon shared a bond with their human partners. Their unique trait that had once empowered their Crests… if they were to lose it, they would lose their digimon as well, for their digimon had been created especially for them.

His sudden plunge from the cliff and into the bowels of forgetfulness must have inadvertently thrown up a barrier. For the first time since emerging from it, Tai is very thankful for his amnesia.

The sharp beeping of his digivice breaks him out of his ruminating and he stares down at it and at the red dots across its screen, which have multiplied. Reality crashes in on him on all sides as he recalls his sister's words to him just hours before, but now seems ages ago.

"Kari!" Tai exclaims, leaping to his feet. "Kari said she was going back here to make things better! I didn't understand what she meant then. You don't think—"

"Well, Tai, if it was Kari who had lost her memories, I think you would have done the same thing she has, right?" Agumon asserts the situation.

Tai isn't sure whether to feel pride or dismay at that statement. "I've been a bad influence on her," he curses grimly, before surveying his digivice again. "It looks like T.K. told the others though—that's one blessing."

"You're going there, right? So why are we still standing around here?" Agumon asks.

"Of course, I'm going there. I'm not going to abandon my sister," Tai declares even as he clenches his hands into fists to keep them from shaking more at the thought of facing the other Digidestined than the cliff itself.

He shouldn't be afraid anymore. He has made up his mind. He will take Matt and Sora's friendship and be satisfied with it, so why does his heart still ache?

"Because you need to talk to them and get things out in the open," Agumon says as if he can read his mind. "If you keep everything bottled up, you'll end up back where you started."

"Agumon…" Tai says and half-smiles. Of course Agumon knows what is really troubling him. He had been there the day Sora had turned him down.

"Just know that whatever happens, you're not alone, Tai," Agumon says, coming up and nudging him lightly in the side. "You forgot that last time."

"Alone," Tai murmurs, remembering his greatest weakness from his memory-less state and not understanding the reason for the fear then. "I forgot a lot of things, didn't I? And some of it wasn't the amnesia's fault either."

Lifting his head up, he viewed the sky, now painted a crimson-orange from the setting sun, the trees and grass appearing ablaze with fire. "I need them," Tai says quietly. "And they need me. I won't make them wait anymore."

It is like he has woken something slumbering deep inside him that now worms and writhes its way up from his stomach until it flares into a scorching wave across his chest and the golden aura that has been flickering in and out of existence around them, bursts into a bright, unwavering radiance and suddenly WarGreymon is standing before him, the light reflecting off his metal armor and his eyes shining with a fierce passion.

"Don't you think you'd get there quicker if you got a lift?" he inquires with an amused tone.

Laughter pours forth from Tai's throat, happy and free, and as clambers up his digimon's back, he lets his arms linger around WarGreymon's neck in a brief hug, glad to see him well and alright, living proof that his courage hasn't completely deserted him.

"Let's go," he says, his eyes shining with an intense zeal. "We've got a score to settle."

oOo

It doesn't take that long for the digimon to come. In fact, they could see it making its way towards them on the horizon—a small black dot growing steadily larger as it approaches, answering the unspoken summons. Gatomon wonders if it has been waiting for them, knowing they would return someday, or if it is drawn to Kari's presence of light like so many others before it.

She trembles half in anticipation for this confrontation to be over and half in trepidation because she remembers what had happened the first time it had attacked them.

_It catches them unawares and off-guard on a day that is supposed to have been a vacation for their partners. Even the older kids and their digimon have joined their group and they are busy having fun, reveling in the rare treat to have everyone all together at once._

_Perhaps it had been fore-planned. It is entirely too convenient what happens next._

_It descends upon them from the above with the same kind of deadly precision a hawk engages when making a kill, swift and silent, and there is no warning to avoid the cascading sheet of red raindrops that obliterates everything it touches. The only reason they survived is because the digimon hadn't wanted to kill them off in one blow—it is toying with them._

_They are on a stretch of beach by the ocean when the onslaught comes. It is not the same stretch of beach the children had traversed on their first visit to the Digital World. It is not the place where Shellmon had attacked them twice, nor where Scorpiomon and MetalSeadramon followed suit later in their journey. Still, in hind sight, they really should have thought twice about picnicking on any shoreline purely out of nostalgia's sake simply because of the bad case of ____déjà vu that seems to linger there._

___They are hemmed in on all sides by pillars of what look like burning fire, but the flame is a sickly, greenish-yellow and produces an awful odor like rot and decay. The stench and smoke is choking them, they can't breathe, and they can't escape. The ocean is front of them and their backs are against the rock. The only way out is up…up the cliff wall._

_The digimon digivolve but they can't score a solid hit on their enemy, who is enshrouded in swirling tendrils of purplish-black mist. There appears to be an outline of the digimon underlying beneath the dark mass, but it is so very faint it is hard to tell what its true form looks like. The air is heavy with an unwholesome atmosphere and their retaliation against their foe is sluggish, as if something invisible is sapping their full strength or they are being weighed down by some unseen element. _

_They try beseeching it, asking what it wants and to please leave them in peace, but there is no reply from it nor does it shout out the names of its attacks. It continues its tirade in relentless, calculating silence only broken once when it erupts into a fit of diabolical laughter when one of their partners fall off the cliff and the emotions of disbelief, guilt and terror are so thick, they can practically taste them…_

Then the digimon is before them again, not from memory but physically present, looming large and menacing, and enswathed in a gaseous dark substance. Gatomon is reminded of humans' depictions of what a grim reaper looks like, all hooded and cloaked in a black robe, and feels an ominous chill go down her spine as she digivolves and tries to convince herself that she can't possibly be looking death in the eye because the digimon's face is not visible.

And on Kari's D-3, the name of their unknown foe finally reveals itself: _Miasmamon._

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: **Well, there you go. I had wanted to have the whole battle over and done with in this chapter, but I spent more time setting up the reason for why the digimon had attacked them in the first place because it seemed more important and I didn't want it to appear totally random. I hope you understand things a little better now.

I based Miasmamon off of the actual substance it is in real life. _Miasma:_ (Greek, meaning "pollution")a toxic discharge, resembling fog, defilement, noxious atmosphere, a dangerous, foreboding, death-like influence. Basically, it is poisoned air, once believed to spread disease, however, over the years, miasma has also been identified with negative energy and emotion.

I like to think of Miasmamon as a kind of evolved form of the darkness we see in Season 01, you know: Matt in the cave, Sora in the pit. It stands to reason that if digimon are reflections of the real world based on human ideas and concepts (eg: Myotismon=vampire, Angemon/Angewomon=angels), that it is entirely possible for miasma to creep into the Digital World and slowly over time there, transform into a digimon.

So, next chapter we have the fight scene, everyone reunited (yay!), and Matt-Sora-Tai sort things out. Just letting you know ahead of time, if I wanted this to be a romance fic, it would be under the romance genre_. It's not. _Read into that however you will. In any case, I'll try and put in Sora's viewpoint so you get a clearer picture of what she's going through in her mind. I've been kind of skirting around that issue.

Alrighty, thank you for reading! It's over 900 hits! You guys are awesome! (A little slack on the reviews, but I just love seeing how many people faved and alerted this!) X3 Stay tuned for the final conclusion! I hope it won't take as long this time. Explaining emotions and the flow of thought is more stressful than it sounds. Do feel free to share your favorite parts and lines and if you have any questions, just ask and I will answer them (without giving away the ending I hope). Thanks again!


	6. Error

**Disclaimer: **I do not own **Digimon.** Toei Animation does.

**Error**

Sora's stomach is twisting in horrible, cramping knots that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the lunch she ate earlier. Small shivers are racking throughout her body and it is not the wind from the high altitude that is hitting her from her perch on Birdramon's foot claw, which is to blame. She is glad she has some space up here to gather her thoughts. She should be more concerned about Kari and what they will all find when they catch up to her, but the only thing her mind appears to be able to focus on is Matt's words from before.

"_Did you know… did you know that Tai liked you?"_

Even now, it still seems hard to believe. Or is because she doesn't _want _to believe it? In a way, if it is true, it is infuriating. For her to have harbored a secret crush on her best friend for so many years, practically all her childhood, only to give up when she had forced herself to realize that a _friend_ was all Tai would ever think of her as, and not wanting to spoil that friendship by asking something more from him... only to discover later, much too late, that he had apparently reciprocated her feelings is like a slap in the face. She had felt so liberated when she had decided to move on. There would no longer be any more awkward fights between them over some hairpin or other such nonsense. She wouldn't have to spend an hour or more agonizing over outfit to wear before heading over to his house only for Tai not to even notice. They could simply go back to being friends again without all the underlying tension she had thought she had been the one responsible for dragging between them. Now, with the knowledge that Tai had liked her back, she realizes most of it had been a severe case of Fifth-Grade Flirtation and both of them being too blind to see it.

The revelation is depressing and very sardonic considering the timing when Tai had chosen to express his feelings or tried to anyway.

"_So, um, Sora, are you going to the concert with anybody? Not that it matters to me. Just wondering."_

_Stupid Tai, _she fumes inwardly when she finally comprehends that had been his way of indirectly asking her out.

By then, she had been developing new feelings towards Matt—feelings that were not entirely too unpleasant. She had begun seeing him in a new light. It had started so slowly she hadn't even been aware of it until one day she had stopped and examined the reason behind why she wanted to leap at Jun Motomiya, knock her to the ground and scratch her eyes out every time she bodily flung herself at Matt.

Matt, who had been there the day she had a row with Tai over why she had suddenly quit the soccer team. Matt, who didn't accuse her of being a traitor for picking up tennis and said she looked quite fetching in her skirt uniform. Matt, who seems to appreciate the fact that she is _in fact, _a girl. Matt, who is the polar opposite of Tai in every way with his fair complexion and quiet personality. And suddenly, Tai remaining merely her friend isn't quite as painful a thought as before.

"_No, I want to be available in case Matt is free afterwards."_

She hadn't known. She hadn't _known. _She just hadn't wanted him to be waiting around hours in the cold for someone who wouldn't show. She had assumed he was asking her as friend anyways like he always had. And he hadn't protested at all.

"_Oh, okay, that's great."_

She had thought he had been relieved—that he hadn't really wanted to ask her anyway, that maybe he had plans with someone else. She hadn't suspected for one instant she may have hurt him deeply, not even in the weeks that followed. Tai had been a very good actor.

"_Did you see his face that day on the cliff wall? You were right there behind me—did you see his face when you reached for me instead? I wasn't even the one in danger of falling."_

Then she had really hurt him and this time the damage might be irreparable and not just to his emotions.

She feels sick, nauseous almost—frustration and guilt doing cartwheels inside her… then they arrive at the location their digivices indicate Kari to be and she gasps at what she sees.

oOo

Kari knows she is being extremely reckless and that if the other Digidestined could see her now, she would get a sound rebuke from them all—and possibly a slap from Yolei. But they are not here, they know nothing of her vendetta against the digimon who had taken the brother she knew away from her and left an empty husk behind. She is on her own and she feels strangely released. There is an odd, slithering sensation in her belly and it feels slimy and cold… but the blood is rushing to head in anger as she sets her eyes upon the digimon that has brought about this misfortune.

She doesn't get angry easily. She may get upset or irritated like whenever Davis starts up his "Kari-is-my-girl" routine, but anger has to have a definite cause. She had been angry at Myotismon the first time she had come face-to-face with him—angry because he had been hurting innocent people to find her. She had thought his destruction was justice served. She has kept that mindset for every digimon they have no choice but to destroy. She has a peaceful nature. She prefers healing and helping digimon, not deleting them. She never thought she would see the day when she would look at any living creature with pure hatred and be consumed with the desire to annihilate it.

The slithering sensation has turned into a restless, agitated squirming like a nest of pit vipers are coiling in her stomach.

She stands perilously close to the edge of the cliff unabashedly unafraid and watches Angewomon notch a Celestial Arrow to her bow, aim it at the swirling misshapen, black mass—at this _Miasmamon_—and hopes its final moments are spent in sheer agony.

She wants to hear it emit something besides its maniacal laughter. She wants to hear it scream in pain—she wants it to suffer just as much as she has these past four months.

She wishes she is a digimon so that she could obliterate it herself—tear it apart, wipe away every particle of the dark mist from existence—to exact vengeance, not justice; to prove she isn't _weak._

Angewomon's Celestial Arrow flies wildly off its mark as the angel digimon lets out an anguished shout as her body flickers in and out between color and a shade of faded grey like that of a badly tuned television.

The air seems to fairly hum with a poisonous energy as Miasmamon's size expands two-fold without warning as if drinking it all in and envelopes Angewomon in one writhing black tendril and begins to squeeze ruthlessly.

Kari's eyes widen in horror as she realizes far too late that giving in to the darkness of her heart has only empowered Miasmamon's strength and condemned her digimon, her digimon who thrived off of her light, to her doom. Angewomon's pained cries resound in her ears accusingly and she takes one small step forward as if she can reach out and undo her error…

And screams soundlessly as she plunges through empty space as the ground beneath her foot crumbles away.

oOo

Ken's heart leaps to his throat as he reaches the scene just in time to see Kari tumble off the cliff and it is as if someone has pressed a rewind button and it is Tai falling all over again.

No, not again. Not this time!

Stingmon dives towards her plummeting body in a gigantic burst of speed and manages to catch her in one outstretched hand. Her body makes a soft _whump-_ing sound as it impacts the insect digimon's upturned palm and Kari lays there in a daze unmoving. Stingmon retracts his arm back and cradles his new possession protectively against his chest, and Ken turns his attention towards the black mass that now resembles a floating blob of a jellyfish in the sky: Angewomon hopelessly entangled in its tentacles and ready to be devoured at any moment's notice.

But their adversary has a far more succulent meal in mind than some digimon's data.

It throbs once—this black mass his D-3 identifies as Miasmamon—throbs like someone has hit a gong and the sound is vibrating through the air and it bounces loudly off the inside of Ken's head, making his ears ring… and yet there is no noise only a heavy pressure on his skull as if something invisible is flattening it.

Unbidden, images of his past heinous crimes as Digimon Emperor flashed before his eyes, one in particular standing out the most: _himself, whip in hand poised in the air, prepared to lash out at a small, green digimon fallen on the floor where he had kicked it._

"_Worthless worm!" he snarls, his features twisted in a sadistic, cruel sneer of disgust as he brings the whip down upon the defenseless body…_

Ken clutches at his head as if to claw out the memory with his bare hands and a tortured scream rips its way free from his throat.

He distantly hears Stingmon anxiously calling his name and tries to find his way back through his trail of nightmares to the sound of his digimon's voice.

And when he opens his eyes, he sees the ocean, reflecting not the splendor of the golden, late-afternoon setting sun, but the silver crest of foam riding pitch black waves…

Then Miasmamon looms in front of him and spreads out a cascading sheet of darkness that veils his senses and he knows no more.

oOo

It looks like an inkblot smeared across the sky, an ugly patch of black that someone has mistakenly painted with their brush across a portrait depicting the vivid colors of the sunset. Matt doesn't recall the digimon being nearly as large as before—it can't bode well for them, and fear comes in a feeling like being doused in freezing water as he catches sight of the victims ensnared in its wriggling coils: Kari and Ken, both appearing pale and unconscious, and Angewomon and Stingmon, struggling sluggishly and in vain to extricate their partners and themselves.

"_KARI!!!"_ T.K. shouts and in the next instant, he and Pegasusmon have flung themselves heedlessly into a nosedive at their foe.

"T.K.! STOP!" Matt cries, but his brother ignores him.

"_Equus Beam!" _Pegasusmon's attack rings out and a blazing green light shoots out of the triangle on his forehead to slice through the black strands that hold their friends captive.

It doesn't seem to have any effect, not that Matt had thought it would, and the others remained trapped within the enemy's grip, limp and motionless, almost lifeless…

"_Kari!" _T.K. shouts again in a despairing moan, an expression of hopelessness and defeat displayed across his face for the entire world to see.

The dark mass _pulses—_pulses like a heart covered in a thick wad of oozing tar—and then _inflates _like a hot air balloon, and snaps out a black tendril at the pair. Pegasusmon bucks on purpose, causing T.K. to lose his seat on his back and free-fall through empty space, while he, himself is caught tight.

"_Poision Ivy!" _Palmon yells before Matt even has time to blink or start to panic and snags his brother out of the air with her vine attack, drawing him safely back on the top of the cliff to solid ground.

"T.K.!" Matt exclaims rushing over to him to make sure he is alright. "God, what were you _thinking?! _No, never mind that, what the hell _is_ that thing?!"

He can't stand not knowing any longer. He wants some answers. He wants to know why it had attacked them before, why it had left, and why it is attacking them again, why their digimon's attacks do not faze it and _how _it is increasing its strength.

"Miasmamon," Cody reads from his D-3. "There's no other data on it except its name."

"There's no other information _at all?"_ Matt demands before whirling on remaining digimon. "Don't you guys know _anything _about that monster?! A little help would be _useful!_"

"There is no need to get so snappy with us," Aquilamon squawks, his feathers fluffed up indignantly.

"That's right," Kabuterimon pipes up. "There are far too many digimon to keep track of out there and new ones come into existence every day!"

"Who cares if nothing is known about it!" Davis declares, his face full of righteous fury aimed directly at their adversary. "It almost killed Taichi-sempai and now its got Kari and Ken! I say let's all attack it together and blow it out of the sky!"

"We did that _last time_ and it didn't work," Cody protests.

"We can't risk a full-out attack on it right now, anyway. We might end up accidentally hitting Kari or Ken!" Yolei snipes at him, worry for their comrades clouding up her mind.

"Oh, you have a better idea?" Davis retorts, simmering in anger at their helpless situation. "What's your plan? Surrender and hope it only eats half of us since its having our friends as appetizers right now?!"

"Stop it! We're not supposed to be fighting each other!" Mimi shrieks.

A dry, rustling sound is floating on the wind and it reminds Matt almost of leaves turning over on the ground, and then he realizes it is the black mass of a digimon _laughing _at them, laughing in a mocking, scornful manner and not even bothering to attack as if they are not worth the effort and Matt's blood boils madly.

"Gabumon, quick, digivolve into MetalGarurumon!" he commands.

"Matt, what are you doing? If you're thinking of cutting them loose, Pegasusmon just tried that and failed," Izzy says, stating the obvious. "I somehow doubt that it matters what level our digimon are at regarding Miasmamon. It appears to be a special case. We need to find its weakness first."

"I've got to do _something!"_ Matt yells in frustration.

"Enough with the guilt-trip, Matt," Joe says frowning, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "Acting rashly now isn't going help Kari and Ken any or change what happened before. It isn't your fault that Tai fell."

"YES, IT IS! _IT IS!" _Matt bursts out and his hands are tearing at his hair as a strangled sob escapes his lips and he gasps convulsively teetering on the verge of a panic attack.

"Matt, calm down!" Mimi admonishes. "Sora, would be you please reason with him? Sora?"

Sora stands a ways apart from the group staring absently at nothing. Slowly, she turns her head towards the direction her name was called as if it had barely registered through her drifting daydreams. Her eyes meet Matt's briefly: crimson-brown irises etched with confusion and indecision clashes with distraught, cool blue ones. It is like engaging in a staring contest and trying to peer into the other's mind.

Matt blinks and she is the first to turn her face aside.

Miasmamon is still laughing, but all of Matt's anger has vanished and he is left with a despondent sense of loss and his heart clenches in his chest as if an icy-cold claw has curled itself around it and raked dagger-like fingernails across.

T.K. has managed to haul himself to his feet and now totters unsteadily on wobbly knees and gazes glassy-eyed at Miasmamon stretched out across the skyline like a thick, woolen blanket, and utters in a wretched, broken tone, "Pegasusmon…Kari…"

The violet-blue hue of twilight and the approaching shadows of night seem to bend and twist towards Miasmamon in a kind of hypnotic magnetism as the sun sinks below the horizon in a circle of red fire, taking all its warmth with it as well as their hope.

oOo

_I'm not weak, I'm not weak, I'm not weak!_

She repeats this mantra in her head because it is the only thing keeping her sane. She isn't sure of where she is or who she is, or why she is even where she doesn't know she is. All she knows is that to recite that line is very important so she won't be consumed by the darkness all around her.

Such terrible, ominous darkness…

Only pierced by a bright golden light that casts its radiance upon her and with there is a faint voice calling a name.

"_Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaari!"_

Kari… isn't that her name?

_"__Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaari!"_

That voice… it's so familiar. She thinks she knows it.

"_KARI!!!"_

And with jolt, she finds herself being pulled upwards into the light by some invisible tether on the other side.

She's being suspended in mid-air, held in a vice-like grip by swirling black mist and she feels incredibly nauseous as if she has eaten a week's worth of spoiled food. She vaguely remembers letting darkness creep into her heart, falling off the cliff and something catching her before succumbing to unconsciousness. What had woken her up?

"KARI!!!"

She blinks away the fuzziness crowding her senses and looks up… and someone is there, on the back of a digimon flying through the air encased in a suit of golden armor and a horned helmet. Someone with wildly bushy hair, which the wind is whipping through and sending careening out in all directions in an untidy mess.

A digimon with a horned helmet… a warrior dinosaur type: WarGreymon.

Wild, bushy hair… brown hair: T-Ta…

"_TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIII!!!" _Kari screams, the numbness fading from her mind and suddenly she is acutely aware of pain stinging in numerous places all over body, but that doesn't matter.

Nothing matters except the sight of her brother's face glowing with a knowledge that once had been lost and she had thought he would never recover.

He's back. Her brother is back. Not the stranger she has been living with for the past four months, but her brother who had taught her to ride a bike, who had thrown himself into a pigpen along with her when she had fallen in one time on a field trip, whom she had traveled with on so many adventures in the Digital World. He's back.

The heavy weight in her stomach disperses and with it the urge to slaughter the enemy. She feels drained and empty of something toxic. She doesn't want revenge anymore. She just wants to hold her brother as proof that he's really returned to her.

"_Tai,"_ she whispers, straining one hand out toward him.

And a shimmering pink light illuminates from her chest.

oOo

For a split second, Matt thinks that the sun has peeked back up over the horizon or that the dawn has come early. The sky is suddenly lit ablaze with an orange-red candor, but it is stemming from a figure, two figures approaching and the golden glow around them is so bright, he can't make out their features… then it spans out in a wide arc and reveals a spectacle he never thought he would see again that he almost disbelieves his own eyes.

But the symphony of beeping digivices at their arrival provides confirmation.

"_Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaari!" _Tai shouts in one long, drawn-out breath, both hands cupped around his mouth to empower his voice.

WarGreymon breezes overhead in a flurried buzz of wings, making a beeline straight for Miasmamon and Tai calls his sister's name again.

Kari stirs, as if waking from a dream or nightmare, wearily lifts her head… and color floods her pallid complexion as she spots him and shouts out his name in echoing response.

A glimmering pink light flares up in her chest abruptly, visible even through the enfolds of Miasmamon's dark coils, which shrinks inwardly as if burned and relinquishes its grasp upon its hapless prey and human and digimon fall earth-bound without warning.

WarGreymon catches Kari and Ken in his arms and he ascends upward for the top of the cliff, leaving Angewomon, Stingmon, and Pegasusmon to be his shield in his retreat. Landing on firm ground, he deposits his burdens gently on the surface of the plateau and Tai leaps off his partner's back to snatch his sister up in a crushing hug.

Kari flings her arms around her brother, returning the embrace equally as fiercely and she is weeping openly, her face pressed into the crook of his neck as tremors of relief and joy cause her body to shake uncontrollable.

"Don't _leave_ me again," she says, her voice clogging in her throat.

"I won't, I promise," Tai assures her, stroking the back of her head as if she were a skittish colt. "I'm back. _I'm back!"_

Laughing, he spins them around in a circle until Kari's head is reeling dizzyingly, but she is laughing too and finds that it may be a strange sensation to find oneself both laughing a crying at the same time, but it is not wholly too unpleasant at all.

oOo

Kari's feet have barely touched ground when her brother finally puts her back down, when Tai is bombarded by the rest of the Digidestined.

"Taichi-sempaiiiiiii!" Davis shrieks, hurling himself at his role-model and would have succeeded in knocking them both over had it not been that Tai had been surrounded on all sides, so all that happens is to send him jarring backwards into everyone.

It's chaos, the good kind. Mimi's screeching in his ear, half-scolding, half-exuberant. Joe has his wrist in his hand and is glancing at his watch as he checks his pulse while giving him a lecture on the dangers of "dramatic entrances". Izzy's hounding him on whether or not he still retains any opinions formed when under his amnesic spell and if any of his viewpoints have changed thusly since gaining his memories back, and Tai can practically _see_ the essay being written derived off his personal account. Yolei's gaping at him as she cradles an unconscious Ken's head in her lap, in a kind of awe like she has seen a ghost revived; Cody gives Tai a somber nod of acknowledgment, and T.K. gives one of pure gratitude as he clasps Kari's hand tightly in his own.

Tai inclines his head in return and looks around, because there seems that there ought to be more people than those who have greeted so far, but before he can get a proper survey on his surroundings, Izzy has rushed forward and gripped him hard by the elbows.

"Tai, quick, tell me!" he orders. "What's a semi-conductor?!"

"Uh…" Tai says, his mind drawing a blank and for an instant, he is afraid the amnesia has come back, and then he realizes he just must not know the answer. "Someone who… works part time on a train?" he finally throws out.

Izzy stares at him incredulously for so long, a nervous sweat breaks out across Tai's forehead and he wonders if he should have kept his mouth shut. Then, Izzy's lips split into a wide grin as he turns to the other Digidestined and exclaims excitedly, "His memory really _is_ back! Tai _never_ knew the answer to that question!"

Heat billows up in his face as Tai flushes an embarrassed shade of red and shouts irritated, _"I'm right _here_, Izzy!"_

A batch of giggles and snorts breaks out and Tai can't help but chuckle along with them… then he catches sight of the two people he had missed earlier.

Sora and Matt stand a few yards away as if afraid to come any nearer and gazing at him with tortured, sorrowful eyes. They stand apart from each other as well as if something foul has come between them and looking for all the world like two prisoners awaiting their sentence to be exiled to the ends of the earth.

Even if Tai had wanted to pretend like nothing is amiss, there is no point now. They know. Sometime in his amnesic period, they had pieced the puzzle together and now the finished picture is haunting them. He has to set things right.

They don't budge an inch as he approaches them, though their expressions have taken on the appearance of a frightened rabbit wanting very badly to bolt. The other Digidestined are quiet, as if sensing some long-time, painful issue is about to be resolved.

Sora and Matt flinch as he stops right in front of them as if they expect him to hit or yell at them. Tai feels a pang of compassion and a rush of affection for them both and enfolds them in a silent embrace. He hears their gasps of shock and feels their bodies stiffen initially, and then slowly the tension melts away and they relax into the mold, and tentative arms reach forth to encompass him in return. Tai feels a tell-tale wetness sliding down his cheeks and they have tears in their eyes as well. No words or shared, but it is an unspoken agreement they will sort out what needs to be later. They still have Miasmamon to deal with, but for right now at this moment, they are content: the three of them, consoling each other beneath the wet, wrinkled wings of friendship and forgiveness.

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: **Right, you know how this goes. I say this-and-that will happen in the next chapter and it may or may not. Pay no mind to the author behind the fic, ladies and gents! She's an obsessed fan with too little free time! Anyway, well, I tried to make this the last chapter, I really did. Except it kept going on and on like some darn Engerizer Bunny and oh, look, another bad metaphor to top all those I've forced you to ingest! Ahem, ah, I don't want to give too much information away this time since it will spoil the final installment. Hmm, so if you have any questions are or confused about anything, please review and ask me and I will answer to the best of my capability!

Sorry for the strange title. I had a completely different one and then three-fourths of the way through when it became apparent I wasn't gonna end the fic with this chapter unless I wrote for ten _more_ pages, I changed it. If you want to know, it's called "Error" because well, look how many mistakes the Digidestined have made getting to this point and then the colossal ones they made here. Hopefully, they'll have learned their lesson and seen their faults by the next chapter or were all doomed.

So, I can't believe the battle took up the whole chapter, though most of it was describing emotions again. Miasamon still alive and kicking, they haven't figured out how to defeat him (though I hope I gave the audience enough clues), and at least I got everyone reunited, yay! Did I make anyone teary-eyed? *hopeful* I promise I will have an actual conversation between Matt-Sora-Tai next chapter somewhere. I just couldn't fit it in here. I mean, could you imagine? "Excuse us, Miasmamon, we're just gonna mosy over thar aways and try and untangle a twisted love triangle. Hold off your evil aura and villanious laugh for a couple of thousand nanosecs." XD

Yes, before anyone asks, I shamelessly stole that "what's a semi-conductor" line from Digimon the Movie. Izzy asks Tai that in there and that's exactly what he says too.^w^

Alright, I hope you enjoyed the fic so far! Feel free to share your favorite lines and scenes, your opinions, speculations, etc. Thank you for reading! See you next chapter!


	7. Game Over

**Disclaimer: **I do not own **Digimon.** Toei Animation does.

**Game Over**

Matt feels Tai's arms envelop him and leans into the embrace clutching desperately at the proffered forgiveness as if it is a lifeline that will save him from dying. A floodgate of emotions breaks open within: anxiety, stress and guilt all rolled into one comes poring out through the tears that flow from his eyes.

He knows. Tai knows that they know and he doesn't hate or hold him responsible for the pain he has suffered, doesn't blame him for his fall off the cliff, and Matt nearly buckles under this profound revelation because, god, he doesn't deserve it.

Tai's alright. His best friend is back, not some stranger wearing his appearance. He's back, whole and in one piece, his memories intact, his eyes no longer clouded by forgetfulness. Here in front of him is the person who time and time again had punched sense into him when he had fallen sway to his own doubts and irrational fears, who had believed in him when he had not been able to believe in himself, and whom he had fought alongside with against the forces of evil on so many adventures. He's returned and together they will battle this new foe and vanquish it, and everything will be back to normal once more.

Then Sora shifts beside him in their three-way embrace.

Matt jerks as if he's been stung and stares at his friend, struggling to find words, any words, to say _something_, but all he manages to croak out is "Tai, I…" before his voice catches and dies in his throat.

And a loud hissing sound fills the air, resembling somewhat the noise of a gas leak, they look upwards to see Miasmamon rippling, expanding its dark mass, purplish mist pooling about its edges.

"Later," Tai says to him with narrowed eyes as he gazes at this creature that seems to follow the Digidestined like a plague. "Let's figure out how to get rid of this thing first."

Matt nods reluctantly, as all three pull free from the encirclement.

"What have we got on this guy so far?" Tai asks.

"Nothing much, just its name: Miasmamon," Izzy states, bringing him up to speed. "Oh, and apparently, none of our digimons' attacks work on it."

"So, if we're basically sitting ducks out here then why isn't trying to get past them to us?" Tai questions, pointing to Stingmon, Angewomon, and Pegasusmon, who are hovering in the sky as a blockade against their nemesis.

Beyond them, Miasmamon waits, its black tendrils flicking out like hundreds of snakes' tongues in a lazy fashion.

"Maybe it's because WarGreymon showed up?" Cody ventures. "He is a Mega after all."

"That can't be the reason," Izzy says, shaking his head. "It attacked us last time regardless of WarGreymon's presence."

"Yeah, but WarGreymon got knocked out of the fight pretty early on due to… uh, well…" Davis trails off, looking abashed.

"MetalGarurumon and Imperialdramon were there too and their presence didn't seem to frighten it off either," Matt says, swerving the topic away from the direction it is heading. If it is possible, he never wants to think about that horrible incident again.

"Well, we'll never know if they could have defeated it by sheer power since it just turned tail and fled after…" this time it is Izzy who does not finish his sentence, and fidgets with his top collar button awkwardly, before continuing, "In any case, I think it would be a futile effort and a waste of energy if we have our digimon digivolve into their highest forms until we have assessed this situation and exploited Miasmamon's weakness."

"Sounds great," Tai says dryly. "Any idea of what that may be?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"Kari, you made Miasmamon release you with that pink light," T.K. speaks up suddenly. "That light—it sort of looked like back when we had our Crests and they glowed when we tapped into their power. What happened?"

"I didn't want revenge anymore," Kari says, thinking back. "I didn't want to fight. When I saw Tai… I don't know—something was different inside me. It was as if a heavy weight was lifted. I'm sorry, I can't really explain it."

"Negative emotion," says a voice hoarsely and everyone turns to see Yolei helping Ken, finally haven emerged to the waking world, to stand upright on shaky legs, his face a chalky white.

"It feeds on negative emotion," he explains. "That's why our attacks didn't work on it last time and why they still don't now. Too much negative emotion—that's what attracted it to us in the first place and what makes it grow strong. That's why it left before, so we could come back with volatile energy running high. Its entire existence depends on thriving off negative emotion: _Miasmamon_."

"Oh, god, I'm so blind!" Izzy exclaims abruptly, his features twisted up in a chagrined grimace. "Miasma… why didn't I see the connection before?"

"Miasma actually stands for something?" Davis asks blinking quizzically.

"The word is Greek," Izzy expounds. "It means pollution. In ancient times, it was believed to be a poisoned vapor made up of decomposed matter that caused illnesses like cholera and the Black Death, but was later proven false by the discovery of bacteria and—"

"Izzy, please skip the history lesson and get to the point," Tai says through gritted teeth.

"Right," Izzy coughs. "Well, the theory of diseases may have been wrong, but this myth having spanned the course of so many centuries transformed into the idea that it was still a toxic discharge at least metaphorically, so modern-day society and culture identifies it as negative emotion and often depicts it as a cloud of a black mist-like substance."

"If you allow its darkness to overtake you, you are only giving it more strength," Ken finishes.

_Darkness…_why is this sounding so familiar to Matt?

"It reminds me of that time you were trapped in the cave, Matt," Gabumon says, following the same train of thought as his partner. "It has the same aura as it did then only much more potent."

Yes, of course. The darkness in his heart that had almost completely enveloped him because he had not felt worthy enough to be a Digidestined, to be the bearer of Friendship, to have friends and treat them so cruelly the way he had. The same darkness that had ensnared Sora because she had been so overwhelmed at the burden of saving two worlds, and she had felt she wasn't strong enough for the task.

But… the darkness then hadn't been able to use attacks of green fire and red droplets of destruction. It hadn't even been a digimon then. So how…

"Things evolve here," Izzy muses out loud. "If digimon are reflections of the real world based on human ideas and concepts, then it is entirely possible for miasma to creep into the Digital World and slowly over time, transform into a digimon. That must be the origin of Miasmamon's creation."

"Can you see it?" Ken whispers in a detached tone of voice, staring transfixed out past the cliff walls towards the vast body of water below. "Can you see the ocean?"

The way he says it, in that mesmerized manner gives the others pause long enough to do a double take, trying hard to see what his eyes are beholding.

Kari stifles a startled cry a mere second later and T.K. wraps a protective arm around her shoulders, his own face paling as it becomes visible to him as well.

Slowly, one by one, the Digidestined see it come into focus: the serene blue of the sea, reflecting the colors of twilight, the moon and the stars glittering upon its surface; they disappear and are replaced with murky black water, its waves crashing tremulously, and a stormy-grey overcast sky in the background.

The Dark Ocean. Matt only knows about it from the younger kids' tales, how it is one of the parallel dimensions running alongside the Digital World. They still haven't figured out what exactly its purpose is, but they do know that it is a dark and foreboding world of evil, and occasionally those with bright souls are sucked into it, like Ken, Kari and T.K.

Does Miasmamon originate from there or has its noxious atmosphere grown strong enough to unlock a gateway to it?

But there's no more time to contemplate or discuss anymore, because now Miasmamon at long last releases its attack in a shower of blood-like raindrops down upon them and there is nothing to do but scatter and try not to get hit.

The ground is cracking beneath Matt's feet and smoke and heat billows up from the craters left behind threatening to split the cliff into two, and a wild fear seizes him because he has lost sight of Tai and the image of him falling through empty space flashes through his mind with alarming speed. He yells his name in a panicked clamor and coughs as clouds of dust clog in his throat. Then the smoke clears for instant and he sees him a few feet away. He lunges forward and grabs him by the arm and Tai whirls on this new assailant only stopping his retaliation when he sees it is Matt.

"Don't go near the edge," Matt says pleadingly, his voice suspiciously husky.

Tai takes in his friend's pinched, overwrought expression, at the way his arm is being held in a clamp-like grip by trembling hands, and nods.

They can't see the others through the thick smokescreen from the explosions, debris is flinging up shards of rock and gravel everywhere, and turbulent air swirls around them in a maelstrom. Throughout the chaos, they can hear their digimon engage in battle and Miasmamon emits what sounds like a long, deep-sighing exhale like that of a person's dying breath.

Neon yellowish-green flames flare up in towering columns that dance vividly across their eyes, slicing through the sheets of smoke that obscure their vision and the wave of scorching heat that emits from the fires forces them backwards and to the ground gasping for air.

oOo

Acrid, black smoke obscures her vision and claws its way down her throat setting her lungs on fire, and Sora's eyes water at the intensity of the torrid air. She struggles to breathe and nearly gags at the overpowering odor of putrid rot and decay the green flames send out as they lick and burn hungrily towards her. She staggers backwards, nearly stumbling into a gaping crater and the red raindrops still shower down about her like blood, and her ears ring from the brutal assault of the explosions.

She can't see anyone, isn't sure if they have survived the sudden onslaught, and her heart beats wildly in her ribcage as she dimly spots two crouching figures through the heavy veil of smoke and recognizes them. She rushes forward before they are lost to her sight again and throws herself down beside them.

"Sora!" they exclaim together and she grabs both of their hands so they won't be separated again.

"If either of you have a plan now would be a good time to execute it!" she yells in an effort to be heard over the raucous din storming around them.

"I can't even hear myself _think_ let alone try and whip up some half-baked strategy!" Tai shouts.

"Well, if we don't think of something fast, we'll all be half-baked!" Matt cries.

Miasmamon roars overhead triumphantly and it sounds like the winds of a hurricane wreaking havoc in its path.

"Agh, have I mentioned how much I hate that thing? It's really getting on my nerves!" Tai declares.

Hate.

"_If you allow its darkness to overtake you, you are only giving it more strength."_

Himself, feeling alone, so worthless…

Afraid.

"That's what it does, doesn't it?" Tai murmurs, a glimmer of understanding starting to shine through.

"What?" Matt says.

"It preys on your mind and uses your thoughts against you. All your dark secrets and fears you never let into the open. It makes you feel scared and lost and alone. It feeds on these emotions and then you feel empty, but no matter how much it feeds, it's never satisfied. It let us go…" Tai trails off, the wheels in his mind frantically turning.

"_That's why it left before, so we could come back with volatile energy running high."_

Connect the dots.

Find the hidden key.

Figure out a way to defeat their enemy.

"_Too much negative emotion—that's what attracted it to us in the first place…"_

Is that the only contributing factor?

What had they been doing that day it first attacked them?

Picnicking on the shore, taking a vacation, building sand-castles, swimming, splashing in the surf, laughing, playing, having fun… being _alive._

Miasmamon had originally just been darkness in its barest form.

"_Things evolve here."_

Had the darkness evolved into a digimon to become stronger or had it been a way to become more real, a firmer substance: a breathing, living creature?

_It wanted… to live?_ Tai thinks, the gears in his head grinding to a halt as he realizes. _It wanted to _live.

"It isn't just attracted to negative emotions," Tai explains. "It's _jealous_ of what we are."

"What are we?" Sora asks.

"Alive," Tai says, feeling the warmth of his friends' hands interlaced with his own. "Capable of feeling—the good emotions as well as the bad."

"_Its entire existence depends on thriving off negative emotion."_

It hates them. The darkness hates them because they are living proof of its unfulfilled desire that would never come true. Miasmamon had wanted to live.

Being consumed by negative emotions every waking moment isn't living at all.

In his amnesic state, there hadn't been one instance where Tai had been truly happy. He had felt caged and frightened and angry when he couldn't remember or understand things he should have. Coming out of it, hadn't been particularly pleasant experience for him either when he _had_ remembered.

Living is painful. Living can be cruel and unfair.

Living only for oneself will make you slowly go insane over time.

Living takes more than one person to do.

Living can bring happiness as well as long as there is someone to share it with.

"This isn't our digimons' fight," Tai says. "That's why their attacks are ineffective. Humans created the myth about miasma and what it's comprised of and the notion of it was so real, it filtered into the Digital World and transformed into the very thing we imagined it to be. We allowed it to become this strong. We're the ones who have to defeat it. We're the only ones who can."

"You expect us to fight a digimon by ourselves and win?" Sora inquires incredulously, wondering if perhaps Tai's brain is still a little scrambled from the amnesia.

"I don't mean a physical retaliation. If Miasmamon has formed some sort of symbiosis to our negative emotions, then we're going to have to get rid of them in order to destroy the real problem—what?" Tai asks because Matt and Sora are eyeing him like he has grown another head suddenly.

"You know what symbiosis is but not a semi-conductor?" Matt questions.

"I can't believe your plan actually sounds plausible," Sora states.

"Four-month amnesic here!" Tai cries, pointing at himself in defense, feeling the tips of his ears burn. "I spent way too much time buried in my textbooks—it's sort of scary and exhilarating having all that information jam-packed in your head ready to be pulled up at a moment's notice with ease though. I wonder if this is how Izzy feels all the time: power-drunk on knowledge."

For a few seconds, there is no battle raging about them, no hurts lost between them. They are just three friends again, exchanging ribbing banter back and forth. It is a familiar, welcoming feeling that wraps around them like a warm blanket of security shutting out time and all other intrusions and they bask in the presence of unconditional acceptance, loyalty, and affection so that everything else is forgotten.

Then Miasmamon swoops down upon them through the billowing columns of smoke and green fire in a roaring fury and there is no longer any place for them to hide.

It strikes out at its targets sitting defenselessly on the ground with dozens of snapping black tendrils like whips unfurled and comes crashing down upon barrier of light that springs up suddenly about them in the air. They can see it condensed, solidified: crisscrossed beams of glowing orange, blue, and red lights stretching into a spherical, spider-web encasing them in its protective shield.

They watch astounded as it holds up against the blackness that is Miasmamon as it pounds furiously—futilely—down upon it, and slice through the dark tendrils into a thousand fragmented pieces, scattering them from the main body of their incorporeal form to the winds where they dissolve like grains of black dust.

Miasmamon pulls backward sharply as if to lick its injured wounds and the air fairly hums with a coiled, tense energy. Tai can feel it through the barrier of light—perhaps it has heightened their senses—Miasmamon's confusion and frustration at this new obstruction. It surges around them, hitting them suddenly with a wave of fear and pain that is not their own and it pelts viciously against the shield like acid rain intent on eroding the very fabric of their fortification.

They can only watch helplessly as thin, hairline fractures slowly manifest in the glowing beams of the web and Tai knows it can not hold out forever: this shield the three of them have involuntarily erected out of courage, friendship and love for each other. The orange, blue and red lights began fading as the barrier threatens to unravel… then other streamers of light streaked out from all directions to join theirs: yellow, purple, green, pink, fuchsia, different shades of every color melding together to form a iridescent rainbow that seems to stretch endlessly in a brilliant radiance.

One by one, the rest of the Digidestined emerge from the screen of smoke to stand alongside Tai, Matt and Sora, guilt having been replaced with determination. It is like they are part of one vast consciousness, one part of a collective connection and a feeling like fire sings in their veins and their minds. A righteous fire burning with resolve and it pours out of them strengthening the barrier shimmering in front of them like the Aurora Borealis until it stands firm, immovable, and all-encompassing, and they can no longer feel the effects of Miasmamon's toxic projections brushing over them like suffocating mud.

There is a moment of surprise as Miasmamon realizes it is effectively cut off from the source where it is drawing its power and hovers in a pool of black mist as if startled. Then it hammers down upon the rainbow shield in a falling sheet of darkness in a way that spoke of panic and desperation as it struggled to gain back the hold—the touch—it possessed on its prey.

But there is nothing now. Not a smidgeon of negative emotions that had been there before, just a strange, warm caressing energy that it does not understand, and Miasmamon writhes with keening sense of loss as well as anger.

The setting beyond the cliff wall looks distorted—like someone has cut out the background and replaced it with another that does not match. There is a gaping hole in the sky and the world of the Dark Ocean beckons longingly to them as the gateway threatens to implode now that the negative energy that fueled it to open have been nullified.

Now their digimon strike. Together as one unit they launch lightning-like attacks, blow after violent blow in a synchronized team effort that promises swift annihilation unless their foe chooses not to evade, and Miasmamon is driven backwards, a madly writhing, wraithlike dark mass that they maintain a safe distance from, giving it the same kind of leery respect one would to a leech they had just yanked themselves free from.

Miasmamon is frantic now—it lashes out with its coils trying to reach for the faintest hint of negative emotion… and finds only the same blank void as before. The rainbow barrier of light is blocking its mental assaults and the digimon are blocking its physical approach. It is so very _hungry _and there is nothing but the yawning chasm of darkness behind it, and it does not want to there because it will be so alone, alone, alone…

Tai watches the Dark Ocean welcome Miasmamon eagerly into the archway of its jaws, hears the wretched creature emit a shriek of rage and fear for one last time before being swallowed up whole, the dimension winking out of existence until something draws its attention again.

He almost feels sorry for Miasmamon. Almost.

The air inside the rainbow barrier twinkles in a kaleidoscope of colors like light reflecting off a pile of jewels. Here is the missing piece of his life that had been felt even when he couldn't remember. Whatever might happen in the future, wherever the path his feet might tread on, here is the moment that will carry him through, here in this all-encompassing shield of unity, compassion, and friendship.

oOo

They decide to spend the night in the Digital World. It is late, their parents think they are having an overnight study session anyway, and they are high-strung and drunk on the delicious taste of victory, and there is four months of catching up to do.

Matt wants to talk to Tai alone but he finds no ample opportunity to do so, not with his friend being swamped by everyone else with a barrage of endless questions, which only comes to a halt when Tai sneezes in between breaths of an explanation and Kari asks worriedly if he is sick.

"Don't be silly, I may get beat up and injured, but never sick!" Tai declares stoutly.

Before sneezing again.

Three times in a row.

Violently.

And returns everyone's astonished gaze with a mirror image, the only exception being the small trail of leakage that dribbled out from his nose.

Tai finds himself draped in several jackets, pushed on the ground in front of the fire, and Joe pressing him for answers before his time to blink.

It doesn't take long for him to determine what has brought this sudden cold on.

"You were out in the rain for _how_ long before the weather here dried you off?" Joe asks, his brow furrowing in disapproval.

"I don't know. I wasn't completely lucid at the time then," Tai says somewhat annoyed at his current predicament of being treated like an invalid. "How far away is the soccer field from my place by foot anyway?"

"You came to the Digital World from the _soccer field?"_ Izzy asks his interest piqued. "So there is a rogue gate there. That's never a good thing."

"We can worry about that later," Joe says, rummaging in the supply bag he had brought along while mumbling to himself. "We get attacked by a dark digimon, nearly suffocate from the smoke and stench, almost burned and turned into ash by its flames, have to run to avoid the earth collapsing beneath our feet, and I have to use this for someone whose cold was brought on by a stroll through the rain. In their _pajamas."_

"These aren't pajamas!" Tai protests flushing red. "These are just clothes I wear around home!"

"You're wearing our house slippers!" Kari exclaims in surprise, noticing for the first time.

"Oh sure, let's be nitpicky now," Tai grumbles.

"Here, Tai, drink this," Joe orders, holding out a cup filled with a thick, pungent-smelling, red liquid. "I don't think your cold's too serious, but let's deal with it while it's in the early stages before it gets worse."

"Is that cherry-flavored? That's the worst-tasting kind _ever_," Tai states, curling up his lip in disgust. "Besides, I'm fine. There's no need to—"

"_Drink the medicine!"_ Kari screams, pushing her face up closely against her brothers in a sound rebuke.

Tai stares wide-eyed at her for one second, before grabbing the proffered cup, downing it in one gulp, then makes a strangled gurgling sound and clutches at his throat, toppling over sideways.

"_Rosebud," _he croaks pitifully and his sister pounces on him shrieking that that wasn't funny in the slightest.

"Not the hair!" Tai yelps as Kari grabs several thick tufts of his bushy locks.

Matt smiles and decides to sit back and simply be glad that Tai is back with them at last. He can talk to him tomorrow.

"Who's up for a game of cards?" Davis cries waving a pack.

"Anything but Go Fish," Yolei says grimacing.

They play a variety of games that last long into the night and fun teaching their digimon the different rules for each one and voice opinions on what exactly the rainbow barrier was composed of and whether or not it is possible to summon forth again or if it was a one time thing, but the urge to sleep is too heavy to resist and one by one the Digidestined succumb to it until finally only Tai and Kari are left awake.

"Tai," Kari says anxiously, shaking her brother as his head bobs in exhaustion. "Let's play another game of Slapjack, please."

"Mmm?" Tai mumbles blinking drowsily.

"Or we could play Egyptian Ratscrew," Kari suggests hastily. "Or—"

"Kari," Tai interrupts, smiling in tiredness and understanding, his eyes heavy-lidded. "I won't have forgotten everything when I wake up, I promise."

Kari nods, not entirely convinced and watches her brother give an enormous yawn, stretch his arms over his head and flop to the ground, curling around Agumon who had long ago drifted off beside him, his eyelids closing shut.

"Hey, Kari," he murmurs, teetering on the abyss of sleep. "Don't think of yourself as weak, you're not. You're one of the strongest persons I know."

In a few seconds, he is snoring lightly.

A hidden patch of icy fear and guilt that she has towed around with her for as long as can recall slowly begins to thaw. Scooting over, she uses Agumon as a cushion for her back, and places her brother's head in her lap, standing guard for as long as she is able to keep her eyes open before slipping off into a deep sleep, lulled by the crackling song of the campfire.

oOo

Sora isn't sure what has awakened her. It is dark, still nighttime, and she rubs her eyes confused, looking around. The bushes rustle on the far side of the campsite and a shadow glides into the fire's light suddenly and she stifles a startles scream.

"Tai?" she says, recognizing the profile.

"Sorry, Sora. Didn't mean to frighten you," Tai says, squatting down in front of the fire. "Did I wake you up?"

"No, yes—I…" Sora stumbles over her words, her thoughts still fuzzy from sleep. "What are you doing up so late?"

"Ah, call of nature," Tai says, the glow of the fire casting crimson shades upon his face.

"Oh," Sora says feeling embarrassed, and then fidgets with the hem of her shirt. "Tai, could we—could we talk…"

A few feet away Davis mutters something in his sleep about licorice noodle soup and flings one arm out; Yolei, who is not lying nearly far enough away, gets smacked right across the face. The girl scrunches up her mouth in a scowl as if she has a built-in Davis-radar and kicks out, sending the boy rolling over on top of Veemon. A satisfied smile spreads across Yolei's features and all three continue to sleep on oblivious.

"Further away," Tai suggests pointing to the clearing near the plateau and Sora nods.

The moon overhead shines down upon them and a strained silence stretches between them until Sora breaks it.

"Matt says you fell because… that he didn't reach you in time because…" Sora pauses, fiddling with a strand of her coppery-brown hair nervously and her eyes darting sideway glances at her companion, before continuing. "He said you liked me. Is that true?"

"No," Tai says, short and brusquely and Sora isn't sure what the strange sinking sensation in her stomach means.

"No," Tai repeats, shaking his head. "Not liked, I still do."

It is so quiet that Sora can hear the blood marching madly in her ears and wonders if Tai has noticed her irregular heartbeat.

"That day at Matt's concert… I was going to tell you," Tai confesses, purposefully avoiding her gaze. "I have really bad timing and poor observations skills, don't I?"

"How long?" Sora asks, her voice coming out gruff and gravely.

"What?" Tai asks, looking up to meet her enraged expression.

"How long have you felt this way about me?" Sora demands, emotions she thought long gone and buried rising up within her and something hot and painful burns in her chest.

"I've liked you ever since I've known you," Tai admits. "I just didn't sort out my feelings until it was too late."

Sora's hands are clenched into fists at her side. "You should have said something," she accuses bitterly. "You should have said anything, _anything_ but 'Oh, okay, that's great'!"

Tai stares at her, something flickering in the depths of his brown eyes as he tries to unravel the meaning behind her words.

"I like you too. I always have. _Stupid Tai!"_ Sora all but screams at him and turns away quickly before he can see the tears threatening to fall.

Tai is quiet behind her and she can't see his face. She can't read his expression, and she doesn't know why she is so angry. She should be apologizing for indirectly causing him to fall off that accursed cliff not yelling at him, but she can't help herself. It's always been that way between them anyway. Tai does something stupid and she chews him out. Why should this be any different?

"Can I ask you something, Sora?" Tai says, his voice irritatingly calm. "If that's the case… why were you able to confess to Matt that you liked him but not to me? Why only now?"

Sora gasps, feeling like someone has thrust a dagger straight into her heart and twisted it cruelly. She whirls around but Tai's face is completely void of any expression.

"How could you ask that?" she whispers, but her mind is racing.

Why? Why had she been able to tell Matt she liked him but had never had found the courage to do the same to the boy who had been her crush for so long before? Had it been because she had matured and moved on? Had it been some sort of subtle revenge against him for blowing up at her when she had started to dress and act "girly" and for him calling her a traitor when she had chosen tennis over soccer? Had she done it to get a rise out of Tai, some sign that he was jealous, didn't approve, that he cared for her more beyond friendship? Had she just been afraid she would be rejected and so had settled for second best, for someone she _knew_ liked her back?

No, that is a horrible thing to think. Matt isn't second best. He is wonderful, kind, and understanding. He makes her feel safe and warm.

So does Tai.

_Why were you able to confess to Matt that you liked him but not to me?_

"I don't _know!"_ she cries her voice breaking, burying her face in her hands as her tears spill forth freely.

Her shoulders hitch in time with her sobs and she doesn't hear Tai's approach until he is right in front of her and draws her close. He's grown taller. She remembers a time when they both used to be equal in height, but now her head fits under the crook of his neck effortlessly and her cheek presses against his chest, as he rubs soothing hands over her back trying to ease the quivers.

"I don't know how much good it will do now," he says and she feels the warm puff of his breath against her forehead. "But thank you. Thank you for liking me. It helps."

She doesn't look up because she knows if she does the temptation to kiss him will be too much to resist.

"I'm sorry," she breathes and she can't be certain exactly what she is apologizing for or if it is for one or a multitude of things.

But Tai doesn't demand an answer or press any further and continues to hold her in his arms, reaching one hand up to cup her face gently, thumbing the curve of her cheek and wiping away the tears that transpire down it.

And only the night bears witness to this, the moon bathing them in a silvery glow under the watchful eyes of a thousand, glittering stars.

oOo

It is early morning when Matt awakes. The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is the pale-blue of night fade away and the sky lightening to a soft grey. The morning mist still lingers low on the ground and the forest is filled with sleepy twitters of its inhabitants as they rouse into wakefulness.

He glances about at the rest of the Digidestined, spread out around the dying fire, now nothing more than a pile of glowing coals, still ensnared by the throes of sleep and starts when he notices that Tai is missing. Kari is slumped over a snoozing Agumon blissfully oblivious; Gatomon is draped over her partner's shoulders like an elegant fur scarf and her tail hangs and twitches in a feline fashion as she dreams. But of Tai there is no sign.

Matt is on his feet in an instant, his eyes darting around searching. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees his friend standing in the clearing gazing out towards the sea, but retaining a safe distance from the edge of the plateau. The sun slowly crests over the horizon, painting the sky pink, dyeing the ocean a bright orange and illuminating Tai's profile with an outline of gold from its rays.

Now is as good a time as any for them both to get what needs to be said out in the open before everyone else wakes up. So with a pounding heart, Matt makes his way over to him.

Sensing his approach, Tai straightens and turns. "Morning, Matt," he greets smiling.

Matt falters in step before slipping next to him and together they stand in silence watching the dawn break until Matt can't bear keeping it in another moment longer.

"Tai, I'm sorry—"

"What are you apologizing for, Matt?" Tai asks, his arms crossed and tone completely neutral. "It was Sora's decision."

"But I… I didn't _realize_…"

"And if you had? What difference would that have made? You telling me you would have turned her down for my sake?" Tai laughs jokingly.

Matt says nothing and Tai's smile wavers.

"That's—that's… I bet you think that's_ really_ noble, don't you?" Tai spits out, anger flaring across his face. "I don't need your pity, Matt!"

Matt can't think of anything else to say and that may be a good thing since Tai's hands have clenched themselves into tight fists and he almost wishes Tai would slug him and they could duke this whole mess out in their usual manner, but there are some things that fighting can not solve.

"I want to hate you, you know," Tai admits. "I want to hate Sora. I want to hate both of you. It would make things so much easier. But that would be like trying to hate a tsunami that's already blown into your life and destroyed everything. It's done with it. I'll get over it… eventually."

"We didn't mean to hurt you, Tai," Matt whispers.

Tai turns towards him and anger melts from his expression, replaced by one of painful acceptance. "I know," he says.

There is a long pause and Matt stares at Tai's hunched shoulders and bowed head, at the way he shifts all his weight onto his left leg, his uninjured leg…

"I'm sorry I didn't reach you in time," he blurts out and he hopes that Tai will hate him for that incident at least, because he feels like he should be at fault for _something._

Tai blinks and takes a moment to figure out what he means. "Please tell me you haven't been blaming yourself for _that _for four months!" he exclaims.

_Matt still stretches out with one hand but all it can grasp now is emptiness…_

_Tai lies motionless on the ground so very far below, a tiny rag-doll of a figure, limbs spread out at unnatural angles and a puddle of red liquid pooling around his head…_

_Tai lying so deathly still on the hospital bed…_

_Tai's vacant, expressionless eyes…_

_His best friend doesn't know his own name or even recognize his sister…_

"You almost _died _because of me," Matt chokes, his voice cracking in half. "How can I _not_ blame myself?"

"No… no, it was my fault," Tai waves aside, claiming the responsibility. "I froze up. It was stupid. I got what I deserved."

Tai sounds like he is talking about more than just his fall.

All traces of guilt flee from Matt and old irritation that only Tai knows how to spark ignites within him. Seizing his friend's shoulders, he spins him around to face him and shakes him angrily.

"Dammit, Tai!" he curses loudly. "You didn't deserve that! You didn't deserve any of this! God, why do you make things _so difficult? _You—you—!"

"Wow, Matt, I think that's the first time I've seen you so darn mad in months!" Tai states in surprise, a familiar lopsided grin slowly spreading itself across his face. "You gonna stop acting like a martyr now?"

Matt gapes at his friend and it dawns on him that he has just been played for the umpteenth time and fallen for it, and sputters incoherently in indignation. Then Tai is laughing at him and Matt has given him a mighty shove to the ground without thinking and has turned his back on him in disgust.

"Oh, now you're _sulking!_ That's rich!" Tai calls out laughing himself hoarse until he is out of breath—hysterical, demented laughter—and then falls suspiciously quiet.

Matt turns around and looks at his friend lying on the ground, at Tai's heaving chest as he draws in huge gulps of air, at the moisture collecting in the corners of his eyes… and flops down beside him.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he repeats in a faint echo of earlier.

A brisk wind brushes past them over the cliff and speeds out to sea, sending waves crashing it its wake. Footsteps tread lightly upon the ground behind them and a figure with coppery-brown hair seats herself quietly on Tai's other side.

Matt stares at Sora over Tai's head with searching eyes. She graces him with a beautiful smile, her eyes shining warmly. He hasn't really talked to her since yesterday in the real world and their conversation had been interrupted by the Kari's abrupt flight to the Digital World and Miasmamon. Now Tai has his memories back and all three of them are aware of this triangle they find themselves hopelessly ensnared in, and Matt isn't sure which way the strings binding them together are going to be cut.

_Matt still stretches out with one hand but all it can grasp now is emptiness…_

_And he wonders if the outcome would have been the same if he had only tried to reach out a bit further._

There's a cool touch on his hand suddenly and fingertips sliding underneath the palm—the barest brush of a thumb against his knuckles—and Matt looks down to see Tai's hand has clasped itself firmly in his own.

"You've reached me in time," Tai says quietly, his face a picture of peace.

Matt swallows back the lump in his throat and curls his fingers around his friend's in a tight grip, seeing Sora slip her own into Tai's other hand.

This time if Tai falls, he won't fall alone.

A raw, half-healed wound in three hearts slowly begins to mend its whole.

And together they watch the sunrise.

**The End**

**A/N: **Yes, I made the ending ambiguous! *gasp* Like I stated in chapter five, this is a _friendship_ fic, _not_ romance. It's not about who gets the girl—that's just the catalyst. It's about secret hurts, hidden fears, regrets, confronting your cowardice and weakness, and finding the strength within yourself to overcome the obstacle in your path to moving forward in life.

If you must blame anything on waiting so long for the last installment… *points accusing finger at Miasmamon* It was all that thing's fault! It just wouldn't die! I had the beginning and end scenes all written out eons ago and the middle just sat there unfinished taunting me. I won't deny that battle scenes aren't my specialty so I have no delusions it was anything epic. I decided the fic must go on though; the readers deserve it, so I hoped the internal emotional struggle I tried so hard to portray was more than enough compensation for shoddy fight scenarios. (Just remember, nothing remains in the Dark Ocean for long, even if canon-wise this is never proved. I just get that vibe, don't you?)

Reasons Why I Decided To Write This Fic:

No doubt some of you have this before, but I'll share it again. First of all, I've had this tale in my head for so long, it's a relief to finally get it out and share it with others. Word of advice: when you want to read something and can't find it, write it yourself! See, I've always been miffed that season 02 never really _resolved_ some issues between the kids. It must have been uncomfortable for Ken to be around Tai at first when he had captured Agumon and forced him to digivolve into SkullGreymon. They never showed what events made Sora and Matt become close enough to start dating, only the scenes afterwards when they are already a couple, and they never tell or show how this affects their and Tai's relationship. The directors merely assumed the audience would take their cake and eat it without pondering on how the ingredients mixed together.

One thing I did enjoy about season 02 is the episode where Kari is drawn into the Dark Ocean's world and how insecure and weak she feels and it's the closest TK comes to expressing his feelings for her. I also liked the episode where it shows Ken's back story and his path to how he became who he was. I wish more episodes where they portray character-developments and insights so deeply had been made.

There is a _big_ difference between Seasons 01 and 02 in Digimon. 02 is much more about adventures and fighting, whereas 01 was really heavy on characterization, growth, and friendship. I guess a big part of that was because they were stuck in the Digiworld in the first season so they had to constantly deal with each other and survive on a daily basis together. In 02, it was basically: school, save the day, go home, save the night and hang out, go to sleep. So there wasn't much room for it. I guess since the 02'ers weren't stuck in the Digital World for so long, there was no need to "deal" with each other, and this turned out to be a very large handicap for the younger kids later on. The 01 crowd is a more tightly-knit group of friends due to this, plain, simple and true

I hope you have enjoyed this fic as much as I have had writing it! Yeesh, I go on unwilling-hiatus for a month and the hits go over 3000! Lookit the fav and alert list! *froths at the mouth in pleasure* Now that it is finally completely over, I hope everyone who can actually submit reviews on the whole now. I know some people have trouble expressing their opinion unless the fic is finished. I'd like to hear from everyone! A fanfic author gets paid only in feedback, don't forget. And that's a wrap, folks!

**Update!** I have written a short omake (unofficial side story/ending) to this fic if anyone is interested in reading it. The link to it should be the first one in my profile if you want to check it out.


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